Tonight in fairly incredible parking jobs

Between the dumpsters on East Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue... photo via Derek Berg

Evening shade

Earlier this evening via Bobby Williams....

Take a chance on living in a rent-stabilized apartment in Stuy Town

The Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village affordable housing lottery is underway.

DNAinfo has the details:

The lottery will give as many as 15,000 applicants a spot on a waiting list for affordable apartments in the complex, according to a spokeswoman for Blackstone, the firm that purchased the twin housing complexes last year.

Prices for the affordable apartments vary widely based on unit size and household size. The cheapest option is a studio apartment for $1,210 per month for people making between $36,300 and $48,400, while the priciest is a five-bedroom apartment for $4,560 for families of five to 10 members making a total of between $136,800 and $210,870 per year.

You can head over to DNAinfo for more details. The lottery submission process ends on March 31.

Putting an end to the sinking at the 1st Avenue sinkhole

The sinkhole that made its debut on First Avenue at East Seventh Street last week at this time is receiving some TLC from workers in a fairly large operation...



No word just yet when the sinkhole will return.

Photos today by Derek Berg

P.S.
And yes — there is a nice sinkhole in the works on Avenue A and East Third Street too.

The Calyx has been branded on Avenue C

As we first reported back in June, the 10-story rental building at 189 Avenue C at East 12th Street that debuted in early 2011 would be converting to condos.

The building has been rebranded, and The Calyx — with the slogan "Choose what you C" — made its debut several weeks ago... with sales and marketing courtesy of Ryan Serhant and Nest Seekers International. (This is the sixth development in the East Village that Serhant's team is representing. His other projects include 100 Avenue A and Thirteen East + West.)

Here's the building description via The Calyx website:

Introducing The Calyx, one of the finest full service condominiums to ever emerge within the colorful maze of streets known the East Village. Built in 2010 and recently converted to luxury living, The Calyx captures the best of old vintage vibes and blends them with modern and stylish living. The building rises 10 stories and sits on Avenue C, an East Village strip lined with tasteful restaurants and cafes and located only a few blocks away from Tompkins Square Park and popular nightlife scenes.

Designed by OTL Enterprises—the same firm whose passion and vision were behind The Blue Building of the Lower East Side—The Calyx offers 35 residences dressed with groomed interiors, a fitness facility, and a rooftop lounge boasting panoramic views of Manhattan. Pairing sophistication with the vibrancy of the East Village, The Calyx is a captivating proposition for first time buyers and veteran real estate investors alike.

The Calyx is for those seeking to capture the energy of an evolving neighborhood, to experience the edge of the city’s past and the shimmering promise of its future.

According to Streeteasy, the prices range from $675,000 for a studio to 1.45 million for a two-bedroom home. Of the nine listed at Streeteasy, seven of the homes are in contract.

There's also retail space available... per the listing, the asking rent is $15,000, with retail, restaurant or gym usage being offered up to potential tenants...



Previously on EV Grieve:
189 Avenue C is converting to condos

Final visits to 5 downtown businesses

[Patricia Field, center with red hair, with her friends and fans in front of her namesake store on its closing day Sunday at 5 p.m.]

Text and photos by Nick McManus

This past Sunday, a team of close friends and I took group portraits at five downtown businesses that are either moving from their longtime homes or closing forever as February came to a close.

We started at Patricia Field at 306 Bowery with Patricia herself. She's giving up the boutique business after 50 years to focus on her film and TV work.

We continued on to Trash and Vaudeville on St. Mark's Place where we were joined by longtime manager Jimmy Webb. (The store is moving to 96 E. Seventh St. this month.)




[Jimmy Webb in the front row with co-workers at Trash and Vaudeville]

We then walked to Soho to Pearl River Mart, where the staff was camera shy but let us take photos in the store on Broadway. The 45-year-old Pearl River Mart closes this week after its monthly rent multiplied 12x to upwards of $500,000.


[Last purchases at Pearl River Mart]

Afterward we visited the Soho location of Eastern Mountain Sports on Broadway to offer them warm wishes before heading back to the East Village to say goodbye to one of the best bookstores NYC will ever know, St. Mark's Bookshop.


[The staff and patrons of Eastern Mountain Sports' Soho location on its closing day Sunday]


[St. Mark's Bookshop staff member and artist Janet Bruesselbach, top right, sharing wine with her customers on the shop's final day at 7 p.m.]

Our team consisted of nightlife scion Pebbles Russell, who herself said goodbye to her home at Sway Lounge last December, artists Gabriel Specter and Jackson Lin, stylist Goldie Rush, costume tailor Amy McClure and Cara Brininstool. All were fans of these businesses and everyone did a great deal of shopping as we thanked those behind the counter for so many years of good times.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Closing time: Portraits of 3 newly shuttered storefronts

Closing portraits at The Sock Man

A final group photo at Vic's Pizza on Essex Street

So much for that Fairway coming to East 14th Street and Avenue A then

[EVG photo of Avenue A and East 14th Street from the other day]

In a July 2014 post about the incoming retail-residential complex along East 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B, an EVG commenter left the following:

I live directly behind demolition on 13th street. The other day I was approached by a pollster for fairway market asking me a bevy of questions about my thoughts on a new fairway on the corner of 14th and Ave A.

And we heard this rumor from another source as well: That Fairway was looking into opening a market in the East Village. (And didn't someone float the idea of a Fairway for the Stuy Town Associated space?)

In any event, it appears Fairway won't be expanding anywhere anytime soon (like they did in Kips Bay a few years back). Grub Street published an article yesterday titled "Inside the Collapse of Fairway, New York’s Favorite, Failing Grocery Store."

To some key excerpts:

The company is saddled with $267 million in debt and on the brink of bankruptcy, and its stock price, which once peaked at $28 per share, is selling for roughly 30 cents. The collapse has been swift and brutal. "Lives have been totally changed and ruined," says one former buyer for the chain. "What happened was an injustice."

And!

[A]lmost everyone agrees that a confluence of issues — including an overly aggressive and poorly executed expansion plan and rising competition in the quality-produce business — are the reasons Fairway is now in crisis. "It was a perfect storm," says a former executive for the company.

Reader Report: Issues in Tompkins Square Park

Several readers have now noted that the light in this lamp post in the southwest corner of the Park ... near the Avenue A and East Seventh Street entrance ... has been out for months... One reader said that she finds this particular troublesome given the groups that often congregate in the evenings at the nearby chess tables.

Meanwhile, over in the playground along Avenue A at St. Mark's Place, there are reports of a man who lets his dog use the children's sandbox as a toilet on a regular basis early in the morning.

The 100-foot journey

East Village resident Helen Mirren had a short commute to work today... traveling to Second Avenue to film a scene (no fake snow today!) for "Collateral Beauty" (here with Michael Peña) ...



The dramatic comedy via Warner Bros., due in theaters on Dec. 16, also stars Will Smith, Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, Naomie Harris and Edward Norton.

Photos today by EVG Helen Mirren correspondent Derek Berg.

BluDog10003 leaving his mark on 2nd Avenue and East Houston

NYC-based artist BluDog10003 has been creating a new work on the mural wall outside the Second Avenue F stop at East Houston... EVG regular Lola Sáenz shared the above photo showing the progress.

You can keep tabs via @bludog10003

Report: Developers buy former LES nursing facility for luxury housing

Developers have purchased 45 Rivington St., the former Rivington Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation, for $116 million. Their plan? Luxury housing, as The Wall Street Journal first reported.

Here's more from The Lo-Down, who has been following the saga:

[T]he sale was anticipated after the Allure Group, a private nursing home operator, closed the building in December. The company, which purchased the property last year for $28 million, has stated that the failure to obtain state Medicaid reimbursements forced the closure. The Allure Group also paid the city $16 million for the deed, which had previously restricted the building’s use to a “Not-for-Profit Residential Health Care Facility.”

Community Board 3 and City Council member Margaret Chin supported efforts to lift the deed restriction because they thought it meant the 200-plus-bed nursing facility could continue to operate as a for-profit entity. They were furious with the de Blasio Administration for allowing the building to slip into the hands of luxury housing developers.

A rep for the developers told the Journal that they plan to house upwards of 100 luxury units in the building, which overlooks Sara D. Roosevelt Park. (You can read more about the deal at BoweryBoogie.)

Late last year, an EVG reader, who had been a patient at the facility, heard the news from staffers about the impending closure of the building between Eldridge and Forsyth ...

Said the reader:

"The building is incredible with 12-foot ceilings and a penthouse floor that has a view from the UN to all of Midtown and Downtown. I knew it was doomed to have developers all over it from the first day I got there."

See you on East 7th Street

[Photo from September by Fenton Lawless]

As you probably know, Trash and Vaudeville closed yesterday after 41 years at 4 St. Mark's Place ... to start packing up to move to a new space at 96 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.


[EVG photo of 96 E. 7th St. from yesterday]

And this photo on East Seventh Street from last July by @chardog1 provided a sneak preview of what's to come...



An article published Friday on the Vogue website had a few details on the new store:

As on St. Marks, both Trash and Vaudeville will continue to exist on two levels. At the Seventh Street digs, they’ll be connected via an internal staircase, and those in the market for towering T.U.K. platform creepers can take comfort in the fact that the storied shoe department will still be housed on the lower level.

And here's an excerpt from our conversation with store owner Ray Goodman from July:

"I love St. Mark's Place. There's no doubt it. There's something magical about it. This just isn't any block," Goodman told us on the phone. "The decision wasn't something that I took lightly. From a business perspective, we saw a shift in the clientele. The block is not as conducive for fashion shopping as it once was. Now it seems as if it's all food — fast food — and bongs. Even stores that aren't bong stores sell bongs."

He said that the changing business environment on the block between Second Avenue and Third Avenue was just one of many factors that played into the decision to relocate.

"The retail world is so different today," he said. "So much of it is done online."

And increasing rents are always a culprit.

"The rent is creeping up," said Goodman, who is a minority partner in the ownership of the historic Hamilton-Holly House at 4 St. Mark's Place. "Rent was a factor, but it wasn't the sole reason."

In a piece on the closing today, The New York Times noted that the rent had risen to $45,000. (That will require a lot of sales of water pipes, ramen or bubble tea...items that a likely new tenant might sell.)

Last November, 4 St. Mark's Place, the landmarked building whose first owner in 1833 was Alexander Hamilton’s son, arrived on the market. Asking price: $11.9 million.

In the past few days, several people on social media said that they'd miss the site of longtime store manager Jimmy Webb on a smoking break outside the shop...


[Photo by James Maher from 2013]


[Photo by James Maher from 2014]

In closing, a passage from that Vogue piece by Kristin Anderson:

While passersby may not ever again know the pleasure of seeing the store’s most famous employee, Jimmy Webb, lounging on those steps ... he’ll continue his reign when Goodman and co. open their doors in the new space ...

The new location is expected to be open some time in March.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Exclusive: After 40 years, punk rock mainstay Trash and Vaudeville is leaving St. Mark's Place

The former Russian Souvenirs will become a coffee shop on East 14th Store

The plywood arrived last week outside the former Russian Souvenirs shop on East 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

The work permits say that a coffee shop is in the works...



Unfortunately, there isn't any other information at the moment about who the tenant will be.

Curious what will become of the former signage. I always liked this one. (Maybe it will become the Russian Souvenirs Coffee Shop? Ha.)



The shop specializing in (Russian, duh) tchotchkes closed last July. The proprietor said that his rent had increased.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Russian Souvenirs is no more on East 14th Street

Tacos in the works for East 2nd Street

A sign for Guaco Taco — in two varieties of green — arrived the other day outside 91 E. Second St. between First Avenue and Avenue A. Don't know a thing about the place at the moment. We'll check back in on the place with some details...



On the topic of tacos on East Second Street between First Avenue and Avenue A, the Taco Morelos cart has been back in action in its usual location ...



The cart had been replaced by a Taco Morelos truck during some recent cold weather... and then neither were there for several days, prompting a few concerned questions from readers...

You will soon be able to get sugared and bronzed on 4th Avenue

Heesoo Beauty closed last summer at 114 Fourth Ave. at East 12th Street... and EVG reader JBA provides photographic evidence of the new tenant: a branch of the Southern California-based Sugared+Bronzed salon.

Several readers have already asked about the sugaring pricing ... (Sugaring being the Egyptian art where a water-soluble sugar paste is used to extract unwanted hairs, as you likely already knew) ... so via the S+B website...


[Click to go bigger]

The portion only goes up to ladle. So if you want the shovel, then you are on your own.

Anyway, this location marks the first in NYC for Sugared+Bronzed.

How about a new smoke shop for East Houston

Coming soon signage is up at 279 E. Houston between Clinton and Suffolk...

This smoke shop will sell a little something for everyone vaporizers, E-juices, tobacco, grinders, cigars, soda and beer, per the sign...



The storefront was previously home to the boutique A Little Wicked. As BoweryBoogie noted in May 2014, the proprietors behind the now-shuttered Scarab Lounge on First Avenue wanted to open something called Zu Zu Lounge Hookah Bar in the space. That never happened.

That kind of day

[1st Avenue]

People singing and dancing in the streets or on the sidewalks...


[2nd Avenue]


[The Bowery]

Photos today by Derek Berg

Week in Grieview

[Photo in Tompkins Square Park by Derek Berg]

Podunk, the tearoom on East Fifth Street, is moving after Mother's Day (Thursday)

54 Second Ave. sells for $7 million (Friday)

Former Sock Man space for rent on St. Mark's Place; presented as a "vanilla box" (Tuesday)

Four-building portfolio on St. Mark's Place in closing for $44 million (Wednesday)

Icon Realty files permits to demolish the former Chase branch on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place (Thursday)

More about the underage drinking bust at Dahlia's; plus, reaction from NYU students (Wednesday)

Incoming Bagel Belly now with Bagel Belly signage (Monday)

Out and About (part 2) with Rafael Hines (Wednesday)

Construction watch: 64 E. First St., paying homage to the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges (Tuesday)

The Shape of Lies goes on hiatus on East Seventh Street (Monday)

Report: Crime is down so far in the East Village in 2016 (Friday)

Superiority Burger is now open for lunch (except on Tuesdays, when they are not open at all) (Wednesday)

Christo and Dora have been busy [blanking] in Tompkins Square Park (Monday)

Selling off Nino's (Monday)

When it fake snowed on East Fourth Street (Friday)

Chopt opens at 51 Astor Place (Monday) ... and a Flywheel Sports reveal (Tuesday)

Nine-story office building for sliver of space on Lafayette and Great Jones (Monday)

About "Gay Arms," a new photo exhibition by Grant Shaffer (Thursday)

The fallout from a fight involving Nate "Skate" Maloley and Derek Luh, fans and security at Webster Hall (Sunday)

Gutting some Third Avenue storefronts (Tuesday)

Minca Ramen back in action (Thursday)

Daniel Delaney has new restaurant in the works for First Avenue (Friday)

Chest of Pleasure has closed on St. Mark's Place (Tuesday)

So, what you are trying to tell me, is that one can't use cash? (Tuesday)

100 Avenue A announces its incoming sales office with familiar naked, graffitied person motif (Friday)

... and it's nice out... grab your Hula Hoop and head outdoors...


[Photo on 1st Avenue by Derek Berg]

Farewells

Today is the last day for three longtime businesses... two are permanent closures and one is a closure ahead of a relocation...


[EVG photo from last week]

Patricia Field is retiring from the boutique business after 50 years. She started in the West Village in 1966, and has been at 306 Bowery the last few years. This store closes today. Field has said that she is now going to concentrate on her film and TV work.

The 306 storefront is for lease.

-----



Today is also the last day for St. Mark's Bookshop at 136 E. Third St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. Any remaining books and magazines are going for $2. This is the shop's fourth location since opening on St. Mark's Place in 1977.

Ada Calhoun's piece published at The New Yorker on Feb. 12 titled "What went wrong at St. Mark's Bookshop" gives you the background about what happened here.

-----



And as we first reported last summer, Trash and Vaudeville is leaving its home of 41 years at 4 St. Mark's Place ... for a new space at 96 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Closing day of our St Marks location has changed to this Sunday Feb 28! Come by & hang w us before we move to 96 east 7th st in March! ❤️🎉👪

— Trash and Vaudeville (@trashvaudeville) February 24, 2016

Strong start for sinkhole season; more pylons on the way

This one is developing quickly on Avenue A at East Third Street... Also: pylon down. Repeat, pylon down.

Anyway, not to play favorites, but I think I prefer the sinkhole that's on First Avenue and Seventh Street a little more. For starters, that one has better effects, like smoke/steam/CHUD.

H/T ‏@thee_thomtobias