Avenue A's New York Sports Club now with ellipticals and monthly deals

Just taking our weekly look at the incoming New York Sports Club at 28 Avenue A between East Second Street and East Third Street…

The gym equipment has arrived … as well as a $19.95 monthly deal (no contract!) …



Oh, if this helps, then we'll use the long, lean gym-friendly arrows to point out the ellipticals…



Meanwhile, the facility is open for tours… per the NYSC website:

We’re putting the finishing touches on our new Avenue A & 3rd Street club and invite you to come in for a tour. This 20,000-square-foot fitness gem features four floors loaded with brand new state-of-the art equipment and staffed with a team of the finest fitness professionals ready to help you get in the best shape of your life. Features will include a UXF® Training Zone, a cycling studio, a group exercise studio, and all of the first-class amenities that have made us a fitness leader for 40 years strong:

Come in for a tour:
Monday - Friday: 8:00am - 8:00pm
Saturday - Sunday: 8:00am - 6:00pm

Previously on EV Grieve:
New York Sports Club in the works for Avenue A

Sidewalk bridge and scaffolding arrive ahead of planned New York Sports Club on Avenue A

New York Sports Club says hello on Avenue A

Familiar Burger-Klein sign has disappeared from Avenue A

Here is the New York Sports Club building on Avenue A

EV Grieve Etc.: 24 St. Mark's Place dePinkberried; Mary J. Blige fêted on Avenue A

The familiar pastel color palette of the now-closed Pinkberry location on St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue has been stripped away.

The storefront is for rent.

And no word on what happened to the main FroYo counter…



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A for rent sign has appeared in the former Open Pantry window. The 45-year-old coffee shop/grocery at 184 Second Ave. between East 11th Street and East 12th Street closed after business hours on Jan. 31. The proprietors also own the building, and we heard rumors of them opening a new concept here. Looks as if they are testing the rental market first.

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The Fresh & Co. signage has arrived on the corner of Fourth Avenue and East 13th Street. We haven't heard an opening date just yet for the kale-and-quinoa chainlet's 12th location in the city.

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And as we like to do every month, we check in on the new mural at Mikey Likes It Ice Cream at 199 Avenue A near East 12th Street … this month's flavor is inspired by Mary J. Blige…



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And just noting that a new sign for Barcade arrived last week at 6 St. Mark's Place. The craft beer-retro video game venue opened back in October.

(And yes — Nimble Fitness is taking the second-floor space of the building between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.)

Week in Grieview

[Tompkins Square Park the other morning]

Here's a look at the new condos coming to East First Street (Monday)

Black Seed bringing bagels to the former DeRobertis space on First Avenue (Wednesday, 43 comments)

Hummus Place closed for renovations on St. Mark's Place (Tuesday)

Union Square box cutter attacks (Wednesday)

Oh! Thanks Ben Shaoul! The future of East Houston and Orchard will look like this (Friday)

Out and About with Adrianna Grezak (Wednesday)

Unidentified Flying Chickens isn't apparently long for this East Village world (Monday)

Little Joe's Pizza is now Little Gio's on First Avenue (Monday)

Icon Realty new owner of 57 Second Ave. (Tuesday)

The 4th annual Poetic License is underway at the Wild Project (Thursday)

A backyard with a hammock (Thursday)

Destination Bar has closed on Avenue A, will reopen as new bar from owners of 2 Ludlow Street mainstays (Monday)

The $1.50 2 Bros. on St. Mark's Place has apparently closed (Friday)

Full Snow Moon (Tuesday)

What's taking the former Cafe Cambodge/Arcane space on Avenue C (Tuesday)

Former Terroir space quickly converted into Fifty Paces on East 12th Street (Wednesday)

Nike building a pop-up shop/something on the Bowery for the NBA All-Star game (Wednesday)

Hanjoo closes on St. Mark's Place (Thursday)

State seizes B.A.D. Burger on Avenue A for nonpayment of taxes (Thursday)

The Met Foods on 3rd Avenue in Gramercy Park is closing (Friday)

… and the new live nativity scene is up at The Church of St. Stanislaus on East Seventh Street…


[Photo by Derek Berg]

Status update: Facebook signs the priciest deal ever for Midtown South in Astor Place

Some news from Friday to note via Crain's.

The social media giant, which has surpassed $200 billion in market value, will add 80,000 square feet at 770 Broadway, the large office building south of Union Square where it first took space almost two years ago.

The building’s rents have risen substantially since then. According to sources, Facebook is paying rates above $100 per square foot for the new space—at least 20% or 30% more than the price of the space it initially leased. Indeed, the deal is among the priciest ever signed in midtown south.

In total, Facebook now rents 270,000 square feet of the 1.2 million-square-foot building on Broadway/Lafayette and East Ninth Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Facebook unveils its new office tonight in Midtown South on Astor Place

Facebook is moving into the neighborhood; Midtown South expands its boundaries, apparently

Report: Maps show that Midtown South does NOT include the East Village/Astor Place

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Along the East River yesterday via EVG reader Brett W.]

The founder of Economy Candy has died (DNAinfo)

Jay Maisel bought 190 Bowery in 1966 for $102,000. He just sold it for $55 million (Daily News)

Zarin Fabrics building on Grand Street sells for $25.6 Million (The Lo-Down)

A list of classic things to do, or not, in NYC (Flaming Pablum)

Stream of foreign wealth flows to elite New York real estate (The New York Times)

Kim Gordon on seeing Nirvana at the Pyramid on Avenue A (SPIN)

High marks for King Bee on East Ninth Street, "a welcome Cajun oasis in East Village" (Daily News)

Shervin’s Cafe on East 7th Street looking to take over Norman's Cay at 74 Orchard St. (BoweryBoogie)

Tomorrow night between 6-10, Pangea Restaurant & Bar at 178 Second Ave. is hosting a celebration for Jody Morlock's "Pictographic" mural.

Morlock is a New York-based painter who says she "draws from the irony and wit conveyed in the fashionable New York subculture" for inspiration and also serves as art consultant for "The Daily Show."

Via the EVG inbox...

With the existence of the art community in the East Village continually under siege by such factors as rising rents and corporate sprawl, Pangea remains an oasis for authentic artistic expression. "Pictographic" is the second permanent installation the almost 30-year institution has commissioned, joining a "pouring" installation on the ceiling by William Engel, a long-time faculty member at New York School of Interior Design,

The event is free and open to the public with a cash bar and complimentary hors d'oeuvres from 6 to 8 p.m. Northern Ireland native DJ Pete McGill will provide the soundtrack for the evening.

RIP Ralph Feldman

[Image via Facebook]

Ralph Feldman, a longtime East Village resident and a former FDNY fire marshal, died Thursday morning in his East Eighth Street home. He was 79.

Feldman, a Bronx native who retired from the FDNY after 27 years in 1985, had been battling lung cancer and emphysema and used an oxygen tank, which didn't slow him down from smoking. He was a familiar figure on East Eighth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C, where he lived in a building that he bought in 1969.

According to a feature obituary in today's Daily News, Feldman began buying up distressed buildings in the East Village, Lower East Side and Williamsburg in the late 1960s.

"To him it was a labor of love, taking a building that was going to be torn down and turning it into something people could live in," his longtime friend John Knox told the Daily News. "He's a Lower East Side icon. People know him for the good things he did, bringing the neighborhood back."

One of his tenants told us that he owns up to 40 properties in these areas … that he never raised the rents.

As far as relatives, the tenant was only aware of one niece.

Feldman was also a prolific artist, and his sculpture of the firefighters who died in the 23rd Street Fire on Oct. 17, 1966, is on permanent display at the Cathedral Church of Saint John The Divine.

Feldman took thousands of photos of neighborhood fires in the 1970s and 1980s. He shared a few dozen with us this past fall, mostly of fires on East Eighth Street between Avenue B and Avenue D. We'll sort through those and post them at a later time.

This post also barely scratches the surface of Feldman's involvement in the neighborhood. We hope to collect some anecdotes and share them here. You may leave some in the comments as well.

Noted

Kinduva retro sentiment on East 14th Street...

New developments in Alphabet City enticing more buyers, developers of the developments say

[Marketing materials for 277 E. 7th St.]

The Wall Street Journal checks in with an article titled "New Units Start to Spell Luxury in Manhattan’s Alphabet City," basically a free plug for the developers trying to move the condos at 277 E. Seventh St. near Avenue D.

To the article!

More restaurants and boutiques, long common on First Avenue and Avenue A, are opening on Avenue C. Lower prices than can be found closer to First and Second avenues in the East Village are enticing more buyers farther east, developers say.

“You’ve certainly got all the elements there — the park, the restaurants, pretty blocks, a lot of stuff within walking distance — it’s also very bike-friendly,” says Steve Ferguson, co-founder of Saddle Rock Equities, who with his partner Joe Eisner developed 277 E. Seventh St., a six-unit condominium between Avenues C and D. “It feels a little slow-paced — it almost feels like Brooklyn in a way.”

'Rave' music

Tickets for the March 30 Swervedriver show at Mercury Lounge went on sale today... the UK grungegazers have remained active on and off since the late 1980s... here's "Rave Down" from 1991.

The insides of the former Yaffa Cafe are now mostly outside

An EVG tipster notes the ongoing work out back of the former Yaffa Cafe, which crews are turning into a new restaurant from the owners of St. Dymphna's down the way here on St. Mark's Place.

Yaffa Cafe closed after 32 years last fall at 97 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Yaffa Cafe is officially gone; back garden dismantled

More about Yaffa Cafe closing

St. Dymphna's owners look to take over the former Yaffa Cafe space on St. Mark's Place

Interior demolition continues at the former Yaffa Cafe, soon to be home to a Portuguese restaurant

The future of East Houston and Orchard will look like this

There it is — the rendering for Ben Shaoul's new retail-residential complex coming to the one-level strip on East Houston between Orchard and Ludlow ... a 10-floor building with 83 residential units spread out over 95,000-square feet.

New York Yimby had the first look at the new-look 196 Orchard St. this morning.

In addition, the new building will feature 13,500 square feet of ground-floor retail and nearly 5,000 square feet of community facility space.

And how about the retail? Per Yimby: "In the rendering, it appears as though the store space may be targeted towards an Apple-like tenant, though none have publicly committed yet."

As BoweryBoogie (who first learned that Shaoul was behind this project) has been reporting, the businesses along here (Bereket among them) have closed or moved to make way for the development.



Pretty much everything you see will be gone — except for Katz's, whose owner sold their air rights to Shaoul to help make all this possible.

Permits were filed earlier this week to demolish the Bereket space, per Bedford + Bowery.

Ismael Leyva is the architect of record.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Along East 7th Street via Derek Berg]

Punjabi Deli is still cheap and delicious on East First Street (The Lo-Down)

Hanging out with East Village restaurateur Frank Prisinzano (Eater)

Youthification vs. Gentrification (The Atlantic CityLab)

Dirt Candy's new LES location now open (Fork in the Road)

Avalon Chrystie Rebrands Itself as The Chrystie (BoweryBoogie)

Progress at the new Subway Inn (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Last weekend to see "Hard to be a God" (Anthology Film Archives)

A look back at Glenn O'Brien's "TV Party" (Flaming Pablum)

Former St. Mark's Place Pinkberry storefront for rent

The former FroYo hotspot abruptly closed at 24 St. Mark's Place a few weeks back.

The for lease sign via Eastern Consolidated arrived yesterday. The listing isn't online just yet, so we're not sure how the brokers are pitching the property here between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

What do you think might possibly be next? Tattoo/piercing shop? Bong store? FroYo? .49-cent pizza? A combination of all those things?

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Did the Pinkberry close on St. Mark's Place? (34 comments)

Why doesn't FroYo sell on St. Mark's Place? (23 comments)

The $1.50 2 Bros. on St. Mark's Place has apparently closed

In other St. Mark's Place closure news on this block … we hear that the 2 Bros. Pizza (with the upscale $1.50 SUPREME slice!) has closed at 36 St. Mark's Place near Second Avenue…

The "pizzeria" has been dark of late during stated business hours. Meanwhile, an EVG tipster reports seeing one of the employees from this shop working at the $1 2 Bros. at 32 St. Mark's Place. The worker said that the $1.50 space was "no more."

If this location at No. 36 is officially closed, then it will mark the second of the three East Village 2 Bros. to close. The location on First Avenue near East 14th Street abruptly shut down last summer.

The Met Foods on 3rd Avenue in Gramercy Park is closing

Several readers have passed along word that the Met Foods on Third Avenue between East 16th Street and East 17th Street will be closing in the months ahead.

Readers made these comments on the Open Pantry post last Friday:

Just heard that the Met Supermarket on Third Ave. between 16th and 17th will be closing in April due to new rent demand. It will be a real loss for the neighborhood. They are all very nice people and the store is a real asset to have nearby.

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I live on 19th off 3rd and I have to say, that Met is a dive. Always walk the few extra blocks to the Dag on 23rd and 2nd Ave or the new WestEnd Market. If they took care of the place a little better, maybe they'd have been able to afford the increase.

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...this Met isn't the shiniest apple on the cart. When pressed, however, they did bump up their produce game. That was a clear response to Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and even the health food market on the corner of 16th Street.

But it wasn't enough. Their space isn't meant to house a 21st-century grocery store: low ceilings, three or four registers, exceedingly narrow aisles, and White Rose this and that. It's low-end, low-margin merchandise inside a marginal space, staffed by people who give off an unmistakable vibe of indifference (and I'd probably do no better after a spell working there, bless them).

The sad part is regular shoppers probably rely on it for location and cheaper necessities. Whenever I go in, I invariably see older folks and others who don't appear to have a lot of disposable cash. Coincidentally, the Duane Reade a block north has yet to undergo renovation --- it's still an "old" DR. So I wonder more about the economics of Third Avenue. There are a couple independent and excellent restaurants around 16th and 17th, and no shortage of foot traffic.

Still, the grocery business has notoriously thin margins and much competition; I'm surprised this Met lasted as long as it did.

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A worker confirmed the April closure to us. The worker didn't really seem to know why the grocery would be shutting down.

We exchanged emails with EVG reader Harry Weiner about the upcoming departure of Met Foods.

"It has been in the neighborhood for many years – one of the last old-school stores. It will be a great loss to many residents. Prices were reasonable," he said. "I'm sad about this. I live nearby and have been shopping there for about 18 years. There are many longtime employees who will lose their jobs.

"Frankly, it's my favorite neighborhood store because it's a vestige of a fading grocery store era and reminds me of my Brooklyn youth."

Met Foods was founded in 1941 in Syosset, Long Island. It was purchased by its current owner DiGiorgio Corporation in 1964-65.

Tenements of the holy: 'Physical Graffiti' 40 years later

Feb. 24 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Led Zeppelin's double studio album "Physical Graffiti."

And on Feb. 24, the band is releasing a remastered/expanded super-duper-deluxe version of the album.

Over at Dangerous Minds, Richard Metzger relays some facts about the "Physical Graffiti" cover — a heavily doctored photo of 96 and 98 St. Mark's Place…



Anyway, in case you are new to all this. Per Dangerous Minds:

The front cover is a daytime shot, while the back cover was taken at night. Amongst the tenants who can be seen through the die-cut windows are JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, astronaut Neil Armstrong, Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, King Kong, the Virgin Mary, Judy Garland and the main cast of The Wizard of Oz, members of Led Zeppelin in drag, their infamous manager Peter Grant, body builder Charles Atlas, the Queen and Laurel & Hardy.

As for that super-duper-deluxe release ...



And since we're all here…



Previously on EV Grieve:
Fire scare on St. Mark's Place at iconic Physical Graffiti building

I'm not waiting on a lady...say, what the hell is Mick wearing anyway?

[Photos via Off the Grid, who has a nice history of the buildings here]

More about 'Straight Outta Tompkins,' in theaters March 6

As you may recall, crews for "Straight Outta Tompkins" filmed scenes for the feature in and around parts of the neighborhood back in March 2013.

The drama, written, produced and directed by Zephyr Benson, who also plays the lead character, opens on March 6 at the Cinema Village on East 12th Street.

Per the the film's Facebook page, "Straight Outta Tompkins" is "a shocking, brutally honest view of today's Lower East Side, New York City drug trade."

Indie Wire has a feature on the film and Benson this week:

There are definite signs in “Tompkins” that Benson has watched “Goodfellas” more than once, as his character, Gene, starts off selling pot-laced cupcakes to his classmates and ends up being recruited into selling hard drugs by a dangerous dealer.

“Goodfellas was my bible,” he said. “The amount of fake coke that I snorted was unbelievable. I was coughing out vitamin D powder.”

He also was influenced by an unlikely childhood favorite, “The Sopranos.” “I was 7 or 8 when it was on the air. It probably was not a good idea to watch the show then. It did something to me when I was younger.”

And here is the "Straight Outta Tompkins" trailer…



Benson, who attended attended NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in Filmmaking, is the son of Robby Benson, the boyish-looking actor your older sister totally had a crush on in the 1970s, and singer-actress Karla DeVito.

Previously on EV Grieve:
'Straight Outta Tompkins' is real, and it is now filming around the neighborhood

[Updated] State seizes B.A.D. Burger on Avenue A for nonpayment of taxes

The state's fluorescent SEIZED sticker arrived on the front door of B.A.D. Burger at 171 Avenue A near East 11th Street showing a nonpayment of taxes.



So, for now, the breakfast and burger diner is closed. (These seizures aren't always permanent, as we saw at Sahara East, among other businesses.)

B.A.D. Burger opened in late 2011.

Updated:

Per the B.A.D. Burger Facebook page:

"Hey folks, we are temporarily closed for a few days. We will keep you posted. For now stay warm and carry on! Spring is around the corner."

Hanjoo has apparently closed on St. Mark's Place

The well-regarded Korean cold-noodle specialist from Flushing has apparently called it a day here at 12 St. Mark's Place.

There isn't any sign of life at the restaurant… the phone is disconnected … the website is down … and they are no longer active on Seamless.

CB3 granted Hanjoo's request to extend their beer-wine license to the sidewalk cafe back in June.

Hanjoo opened here between Second Avenue and Third Avenue in October 2012… and it seemed poised to stop the recent revolving door that included Hirai Mong, Gama, San Marcos, Siren and @Cafe. The address was also once home to the St. Mark's Bookshop.

Friends trying to help East Village resident stay in his home of 43 years

Some EVG Grieve readers shared the following about longtime resident Bobby Gorman's housing situation …. information via GoFundMe…

I have lived in the same East Village apartment in New York City since 1971. As I am the only surviving original tenant, the co-op board now wants me out so they can realize a high profit from my low income apartment. For over 10 years they have used every trick in the book to get me to leave …

In April 2014, the co-op filed the case in New York Supreme Court to force me out. I am a cater-waiter by profession with a very modest income. All I could afford was a low-priced attorney who failed to file the correct documents, then coerced me into signing an affidavit that saved him and condemned me. As a result, on September 15th I got a Sheriff’s Vacate Order. I’ve since had three appearances before Judge Barbara Jaffe who decided on January 9th to terminate my tenancy. In addition I will lose all of my shares in the coop and be libel for a whopping $60,000+ for the coop’s legal fees.

What I desperately need now is to raise $80,000 to cover the costs of an appeal and trial.

I have a good lawyer on board this time who feels strongly about a successful appeal, and trial.

To date, Gorman, a 67-year-old Vietnam veteran, has raised nearly $6,500. Find more details at GoFundMe.