[UPDATED] Ramona (aka Bear) is lost

Via the EVG inbox...



Updated 3:57 p.m.

Ramona has been found! We don't have all the details... apparently she is a little banged up and is at the vet, but she is fine. Thank you to everyone who helped, tweeted, etc.

Let's go crazy

The Prince-inspired Sing for Hope piano (titled Dearly Beloved) is now ready for action in Tompkins Square Park...



Brooklyn-based artist Eric Inkala designed the piano, which will be in the Park through June 19. Sing for Hope will later place the pop-up pianos from around the city in NYC public schools.

And thank you Tony...



Updated

Here's Billy the Artist taking it for a spin...



Photos by Steven

Christening a new neighborhood

Spotted this morning on the plywood along East 13th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...



Welcome to Stuyraq!



This is at the site of the former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office. There are currently approved plans for an 8-story, 114-unit (23 affordable, 91 market rate) mixed-use building here.

However, reps for the developers (Benenson Capital Partners in association with the Mack Real Estate Group) are lobbying to receive a zoning variance for a 12-story building. In an analysis of the plot, the developers note that "unusually elevated groundwater levels and exceedingly soft and unstable soil (owing to the presence of an underground stream) ... result in extraordinary construction costs." Read more about this here.

Officials from Stuyraq could not be reached for comment.

Thanks to EVG reader Daniel for the photos!

[Updated] Mount Sinai Beth Israel officials to discuss future plans with CB3; plus, an open letter

There has been a lot of news coming out of Mount Sinai Beth Israel in recents weeks... first, officials announced that they are closing their 825-bed facility on First Avenue at East 16th Street in the next four years.

Mount Sinai Health System plans to replace the existing facility by opening a smaller, 70-bed hospital on 14th Street and Second Avenue.

Yesterday, the Post reported that Mount Sinai officials have put its First Avenue properties on the market.

As a reminder, hospital reps will be on-hand tonight during a joint Community Board 3 committee meeting to discuss their future plans. The 6:30 p.m. public meeting is in the Thelma Burdick Community Room, 10 Stanton St. at the Bowery.

Meanwhile, we heard from several residents who recently received this letter in the mail from Mount Sinai Beth Israel ...


[Click to go big]

Billed as "some exciting news for the downtown community," the letter outlines Mount Sinai Health System's $500 million investment in their services at various facilities below 34th Street...



The letter, signed by Kenneth L. Davis, president and CEO of Mount Sinai Health System, does not mention that the current facility will close in the coming years.

Updated 6-10

NY1 has a report on the meeting here.

Excerpt:

Administrators discussed some details of their plan at a community board meeting Thursday night. Saying while the current 825-bed hospital would indeed shut down — it would be replaced by a new, smaller facility nearby.

Still, many question what they see as a drastic reduction in service.

"Now they say no we're not going to be closed, but the admissions part of it, the in-house beds are going to be closed, reduced from 825 to 70," said one woman.

"I see the poor, the needy and the elderly is going to be the ones who have to travel up to Roosevelt, to all these different hospitals and the ones that's paying market rent down here they are going to be the ones that have the luxury to lay up in the new hospital with only 70 beds," said another.

We'll update with other media reports as they are posted...

Restaurant-ready space at 58 St. Mark's Place asking $19k

[Image via LoopNet]

Hakata Hot Pot and Sushi Lounge, housed in the retail spaces at 58 St. Mark's Place between First Avenue and Second Avenue, closed at the end of February.

In a message on Facebook, the owners said that they had lost their lease. (Hakata Hot Pot combined with sister restaurant Zen 6 the next block to the west at 31 St. Mark's Place.)

The two spaces are now on the market. According to the listing at Sinvin, the 1,400-square-foot space can be leased separately or together. Each space is asking $9,500; $19,000 for the whole thing.

Some bullet sales points:

• Charming intimate spaces for restaurants or coffee shops
• Brick walls & wood floors
• As of right, space for two tables in front of each store
• Landlord presenting each as a vanilla box
• Restaurant ready with venting, grease trap, 200 am electric panel, HVAC, and stubbed for gas and plumbing
• Wine & beer only, next to a church

Raphael Toledano became the building's landlord last fall.

Natori, a longtime favorite, closed at this address in November 2012.

201 2nd Ave. is for sale

[Image via Cushman & Wakefield]

The five-story building between East 12th Street and East 13th Street arrived on the market this week.

Here's how the folks at Cushman & Wakefield are positioning the sale:

The building currently consists of a ground floor retail space with residential apartments on the upper floors. The retail is currently leased to Ray's Gourmet until February 2021 who pays $7,957 per month, or $102 per square foot which is below market. There are preliminary plans to expand by increasing the retail square footage to approximately 2,115 square feet (when space becomes vacant).

The preliminary plans for the above floors call for eight apartments of which two (2) will be three-bedroom units, two (2) will be two-bedroom units, and four (4) will be one-bedroom units.

201 Second Avenue presents the opportunity to capitalize on a neighborhood commanding in excess of $85/SF for residential rents and over $2000/SF for new condo units. The building is less than one block from the L train stop at 14th Street, next door to Momofuku Ssam and has close proximity to Union Square.

Price: $10.5 million.

Per public records, it appears 201 2nd Ave. Realty with a 111 Broadway address purchased the building in April 2015 for $7.8 million.

The Grassroots Tavern now opens 1 hour earlier

EVG and Grassroots regular Riley McCormick notes that the bar at 20 St.Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue is now open one hour earlier ... 3 p.m. ... still with the $2 pints (of Bud/Bud Light right???) ... and now also offering — heh — white peach sangria.

Not sure how this compares just yet with the Great Changing of the Old TV Set in 2011.

8:15 p.m.

By Bobby Williams

[Updated] Waiting for POTUS on Astor Place

[Photo by EVG White House correspondent Steven]

President Obama is in town this afternoon and evening for two fundraising events. He also taped a segment for "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon."

Anyway, in case you were wondering about the massive NYPD presence and barricades on Astor Place, Lafayette, East Houston, etc.

Updated 6:15 p.m.

Another photo via Steven...



Those new Cadillacs are pretty nice!

... and another via Steven...



If you missed the President just now, you can also see him during a pop-up visit at Webster Hall at 2 a.m.

Updated 6:40 p.m.

Here's the Presidential motorcade passing Avenue A at East Houston a little earlier... via EVG reader Ronnie... (highlight at the 19- to 24-second mark...)



Previously on EV Grieve:
East 12th Street and Avenue A tonight: Waiting for the President to pass by

Today in Hōkūleʻa sightings on the East River

EVG Hōkūleʻa correspondent Dave on 7th spotted the legendary voyaging canoe on the East River earlier today...



The craft arrived in New York Harbor on Sunday...

The canoe is taking part in a variety events this week, including World Oceans Day today.

You can read more about the Hōkūleʻa and its historic East Coast voyage right here.

Report: Mount Sinai Beth Israel ready to sell its 1st Avenue campus

[Photo from May]

The Mount Sinai Health System, as previously reported, plans to replace its existing First Avenue facility by opening a smaller hospital on 14th Street and Second Avenue in the years ahead.

Now officials have reportedly put up its First Avenue properties, which are expected to close in the next four years, on the market.

Lois Weiss at the Post had the scoop:

Real estate sources say the sale, which is expected to include that full block bordered by First and Second avenues and East 16th to East 17th streets, will also include other First Avenue properties.

Weiss reported that Douglas Harmon of Eastdil Secured, who brokered the $5.45 billion Stuy Town/Peter Cooper deal with Blackstone, is talking to interested investors.

While it lies opposite Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village ... the campus is also opposite the leafy and elegant Stuyvesant Square Park, making residential options enticing, especially as Stuy Town’s new owner, Blackstone, has plenty of air rights toward seeking landing strip.

There's no word yet what this prime chunk of real estate might fetch. The Real Deal noted that "hospitals make an attractive target for developers. For example, in 2014, Fortis Property Group paid $240 million for the Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill, where it plans to build residential towers."

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.



By James Maher

Name: Joe
Occupation: Retired, Teacher
Location: Village View, First Avenue
Time: 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 21

I grew up in Little Italy. I was born on Mott Street and went to school in St. Patricks', the old cathedral, which is down the block from where I lived. The neighborhood there was mostly broken up in parts, like on Mulberry Street there were mostly Neapolitan people. Half of Mott Street was half Neapolitan and half Sicilian. On Elizabeth Street were all Sicilian people; there were all different dialects of Sicilian people.

There was a lot of street activity. You’d play baseball in the street. Kids used to take a pair of ball-bearing skates, take them apart and get a piece of 2x4 wood ... they used to nail a milk box or a soda box on the top, and that was a scooter to ride around on. It was crazy, but this is how we did it in those days.

We never had crime in that neighborhood. As far as racism or anything, we didn’t even know what racism was about. I didn’t know anything about segregation until I went to school. When I was in the neighborhood, you either conformed or you didn’t, and if you didn’t they made you conform or you moved out.

Most of that area was controlled by the Mob. So if you had any problems the Mob knew and they’d settle it up before you’d have any problems. The neighborhood was very safe. You could have went out to a dinner or a dance when you were a teenager, come home at 2 in the morning and you didn’t have to worry, because those guys were out 24 hours. They were out all hours of the night. As soon as they saw the wrong person coming, they used to go after them. They were protective because they didn’t want the police in the area. You never had crime there.

You got spoiled because a lot of the things in Little Italy were fresh made: fresh pasta, fresh meat, fresh sausage, fresh everything. You got spoiled. There were a lot of good places to eat. Every block had a restaurant or an outlet where you ate. A lot of them were like cafes. People used to go in there and hang out. A lot of those stores used to have pastries, but it was almost like a come-on. It wasn’t like that was their main product to sell. They had a pool room and these guys used to hang out in there. They used to gamble and what not. A lot of the fellas used that as a place to meet. Then the ownership turned over and the pastry became the main part.

In those days, a lot of people went to public school and then when they got married they moved out of the neighborhood. Eventually there was no more Little Italy. Most of the owners now either own the building or their family was there for many years and they still have the business. But other than that, they’re all gone. They [began] moving out in the 1960s. That’s when everything started to change. Most of the people moved to Jersey, Staten Island, Long Island and Brooklyn.

Mostly years ago all these sections were split up [by ethnicity]. Like Orchard Street was all Jewish. If you were there and you weren’t Jewish and you wanted to rent a store, they wouldn’t rent it to you. They were clannish because they had to be. When you passed the Bowery and went west, there were all Italians there. They never had wars; they never had fights, because they got along.

Second Avenue was like Broadway to the Jewish people. On Saturday night, if you didn’t have a fur coat, you couldn’t go there. People used to come down to see the plays. There was the National Theatre, the Yiddish Theatre. There were all Jewish movie theatres down here.

The best places here were the famous dairy restaurants on Second Avenue. My family owned a building on Second Avenue, and we had a dairy restaurant in there called Steinberg’s Dairy Restaurant. Then you had the Moskowitz and Lupowitz, which was a Romanian restaurant. They sold very good food. Then there was Ratner’s. So when people came out of the theatres on Saturday, all those restaurants were booming. They made a ton of money and the food was out of this world.

You passed there as a kid and you looked in the window and you’d see these big cheesecakes. Your mouth used to water but you couldn’t afford it in those days. This was the 1950s and 1960s. It was a different way of living

Next week, Joe talks about moving into Village View in 1964 and working for NYU.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Tompkins Square Park getting a Prince-inspired piano for the next 10 days

The Sing for Hope piano arrived in Tompkins Square Park yesterday... where it will be officially unveiled tomorrow for public use through June 19.

Here's more via the Sing for Hope website:

As NYC’s largest annual public art project, The Sing for Hope Pianos impacts an estimated 1 million New Yorkers and visitors each year. For two weeks each summer, we bring 50 unique, artist-created Sing for Hope Pianos to the parks and public spaces of all five boroughs for anyone and everyone to enjoy.

This year, we are thrilled to announce that, following public installation, all of The 2016 Sing for Hope Pianos will be placed in permanent homes in NYC public schools, bringing the power of the arts to an estimated 15,000 New York City schoolchildren.

Brooklyn-based artist Eric Inkala designed the piano for Tompkins Square Park...it is titled "Dearly Beloved," and is dedicated to Prince.

Here's a look at the piano after workers unwrapped it...


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

This is the first pop-up piano for the Park since 2013. (There was a piano on Astor Place last year.)

Thanks to William Klayer for the top two photos

Hi, Ben Shaoul would like to buy your building

Slightly amused/mostly horrified residents of a co-op on East 11th Street passed along the following unsolicited email from a rep for developer Ben Shaoul... addressed to a Maria, even though there isn't anyone by that name living in the building...

On East Houston, empty lot awaits million-dollar condos

A crew made pretty quick work of demolishing the two-level structure at 287 E. Houston St. near Clinton Street...as these photos from Saturday show...



As previously noted, there are plans for an 11-story building with 28 luxury residences (top price will reach $5 million). The city has yet to approve the necessary permits for the development.

The space previously housed a tax preparation service and a landscaping business.

Previously on EV Grieve:
11 stories of condos to join the growing East Houston residential corridor

Ready to join the flight club

Christo and Dora's red-tailed hawk offspring continue to practice flapping their wings in Tompkins Square Park...



Goggla, who has more hawklet photos here, figures the trio will be ready to fledge any moment now...

Photos today by Bobby Williams

Chico's tribute to Muhammad Ali on Avenue B

Between Second Street and Houston.

The last tribute mural that we recall longtime LES graffiti artist Antonio "Chico" Garcia creating was for Robin Williams on East 13th Street in August 2014.

End days for Surma Books & Music

As you may have read, Surma Books & Music is closing this month at 11 E. Seventh St. near Cooper Square after 98 years in business.

The New York Times has reaction from the Ukrainian specialty store's longtime patrons ... as well as third-generation owner Markian Surmach.

A sampling:

“You can trace the whole history of our community through this store,” said William M. Dubetz, 79, a security guard from the Bronx who has stopped by Surma for 61 years to pick up his weekly Ukrainian newspaper. “I don’t know what will happen to that culture once it closes.”

And...

Despite the gentrification of Little Ukraine (and its corresponding rent increases), Markian Surmach was not exactly forced out of his store. He owns the building, which his grandfather bought for $15,000. Its sale now is likely to fetch millions — a sum surely never envisioned by the young Myron Sr., whose mother sold a cow so he could afford to leave Ukraine. Although many customers bemoaned his decision, Mr. Surmach explained that sales have slumped since the 1990s, when the fall of the Soviet Union and the proliferation of cheap specialty goods online made Surma’s once scarce wares more readily available.

“Even if we own the building, the property taxes and upkeep are very expensive and have drowned out profits to the point where we’re barely floating,” Mr. Surmach, 54, said. “If we didn’t own the place, we’d have been out of business decades ago.”

The St. Mark's Church Greenmarket returns today

The Greenmarket outside St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery on Second Avenue at East 10th Street returns for its 35th year today.

A few details:

Open Tuesdays, June 7 - November 22
Market Hours: 8 a.m. - 6 p.m.

GrowNYC's Textile Recycling: 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
GrowNYC's Compost Collection: 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Cash, EBT/Food Stamps, Debit/Credit, WIC Vegetable & Fruit checks & FMNP coupons accepted.

Farmers
Mi Ranchito Farm Specialty vegetables, New Farmer Development Project Participant from Monmouth County, NY
Kernan Farms Vegetables from Cumberland County, NY

Updated 9:30 a.m.

A photo via Steven of the Greenmarket this morning...

Former Avenue D Rite Aid has been demolished to make way for a 12-story building

Workers have wrapped up the demolition of several one-level storefronts, including Rite Aid (and Shady's pizza!), on Avenue D between Sixth Street and Seventh Street...





In January, the Rite Aid relocated one block north to the vacant retail space in the Arabella 101 building.

As for 79-89 Avenue D, the approved permits on file with the city show a building with a total of 96,038 square feet (7,868 of them for the retail component). There are 110 dwelling units listed.

L&M Development Partners, one of the groups involved in the Essex Crossing development at the former Seward Park urban renewal site, bought the three parcels of 79-89 Avenue D in 2014 for $12.5 million.

We have not seen any renderings for the new building just yet. GF55 Partners, whose area work includes Jupiter 21 and 48 Bond, are the architects of record.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Space that houses Rite Aid on Avenue D hits market for $22.5 million

Report: New 12-story, mixed-use building in the works for Avenue D

Permit pre-filed for new 12-floor building at 79-89 Avenue D