Permits filed to demolish 5 buildings on 11th Street to make way for new hotel

Plans to bring a 300-room hotel to East 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue are progressing.

On Thursday, the Lighthouse Group filed permits with the city to demolish five buildings — 112 to 120 E. 11th St. — that will yield to the new property.

So basically everything from the Village Pourhouse building on Third Avenue to the building housing Amsterdam Billiards on the corner of Fourth Avenue will come down... if everything receives the proper approvals.



Back in May, The Real Deal reported that Lighthouse had plans for the new property, with Marriott International’s Moxy Hotels serving as the brand.

Per that article:

Moxy, the new Marriott brand which is targeting millennials with lower prices and a youthful vibe.

In early 2015, the company said it expected to spend $1 billion to develop four Moxy hotels in Manhattan, one in Brooklyn, and one in Los Angeles. Lightstone will spend another $1 billion on other Moxy projects around the country.

Two other Moxy projects in Manhattan are a proposed 36-story, 343-key hotel at 105 West 28th Street in Chelsea, and a 16-story, 618-key hotel at 485 Seventh Avenue, south of Times Square.

The Moxy website shows that the 11th Street property is expected in late 2018...


[Click to go big]

To date, there aren't any plans on file for the hotel. So there isn't any word how large this development will be.

The Lightstone Group paid Pan Am Equities $127 million for the portfolio, which includes 85 E. 10th St. That building isn't expected to be part of the new development.

Previously on EV Grieve:
6-building complex on East 10th Street and East 11th Street sells for $127 million

Report: 300-room hotel planned for East 11th Street

Preservationists say city ignored pitch to designate part of 11th Street as a historic district

On 10th Street, Prime & Beyond has closed; popular Japanese steakhouse coming next

Back January 2013, the Post reported that Prime & Beyond, the steakhouse at 90 E. 10th St. between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue, was leaving the East Village to be closer to the Lincoln Tunnel and its New Jersey location.

However, the steakhouse, which opened in July 2011, hung in there. Until now.

Prime has closed, and a new suitor is already in line for the address. Documents (PDF!) on file at the CB3 website ahead of this month's SLA committee meeting show that The Ikinari Steak is taking the space. The Tokyo-based chain has 50 locations worldwide; this is the first for the United States. (This item will not be heard at the SLA meeting, however.)

The proposed hours are 11 a.m. to midnight daily... the CB3 questionnaire shows 15 tables with 50 seats. As Eater reported on Friday, Ikinari Steak is "wildly popular" in Tokyo, and is "known for its lack of chairs and fast turnover." And! "The concept is to feed people steak as quickly as possible."

The diagram with the CB3 materials shows a standing area... (and, not shown below, an area for "low tables")...


[Click to go big]

Here's more on Ikinari Steak and its owner, restaurateur Kunio Ichinose, via The Financial Times:

Customers stand at 1m-high tables and order the precise number of grammes desired. The cost — Y5/gramme for rib-eye to more than Y10/g for sirloin — gives customers what Mr Ichinose claims is a vital sense of control.

Everything is calculated for speed of throughput and optimal use of limited ground floor spaces in key city locations. The height of the tables, Mr. Ichinose demonstrates by jumping up and miming, has been calibrated so that diners are unlikely to put their knives and forks down between mouthfuls. He pulls out a smartphone, which funnels him real-time CCTV footage of all the restaurants, to show this happening.

So it looks as if this location would have both the super-fast standing option... as well as dining room seating. Given the proximity to many office workers at 51 Astor Place/the IBM Watson Building/Death Star as well as 770 Broadway (HuffPost, aol, Facebook, Billboard, etc.) ... this could potentially be a hit ... on an otherwise pretty quiet street.

Also, the retail space above prime, formerly a Miron real-estate office, is for rent...via Winick Real Estate...

Cafe-office space in the works for Cooper Square dorm retail space

It looks as if preliminary work is underway in one of the two storefronts at 200 E. Sixth St., home of the Marymount Manhattan College dormitory on Cooper Square.

In June, CB3 OK'd a beer-wine license for applicants opening a cafe called BRUD. (Or maybe Brud. We've seen spelling for it both ways.)



The CB3 application shows daily hours of 7 a.m. to midnight... with menu items including breakfast wraps, deli sandwiches and salads... as well as tea and coffee. (There's a sample menu on file with the questionnaire at the CB3 website.)



The approved DOB permit for the retail space shows that Emporium Design, whose East Village credits include Boulton & Watt and the Blind Barber, is working on the interior.

The Emporium Design website states that BRUD is a "Shared Office Space and Café Concept."

Here's one of the renderings...


[Emporium Design]

The 13-story dorm opened for Marymount Manhattan College students last August. The dorm sits on a lot previously occupied in part by 35 Cooper Square, the Federal-style building that dated to 1825.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Something 28,998 square feet or so coming to Cooper Square (and goodbye Cooper 35 Asian Pub?)

Proposed dorm for former 35 Cooper Square looks to be 4 floors taller

City OKs 13-floor dorm for Cooper Square

Former Barbone space for rent on Avenue B

Barbone, the low-key Italian restaurant on Avenue B, closed after 10 years in June — a victim of Cromanization.

Landlord Steve Croman reportedly would not renew Barbone's lease. So owner Alberto Ibrahimi decided to get evicted instead.

Ibrahimi told Bedford and Bowery back in June: "We could not get a new lease. Knowing I wouldn’t get my security deposit back I decided not to pay the rent until eviction."

On Friday, the rent signs arrived at the space between 11th Street and 12th Street. Will be curious to see what the asking rent is for the restaurant, which includes a rear garden.

Aug. 7

An EVG reader shared this photo from today on Seventh Street... the reader said that he woke up to "what sounds like someone struggling to pull a bag of trash down the stairs" in the apartment building. Turns out someone simply decided that it was time to discard the holiday tree...though falling short of the tree-tossing record by several weeks.

Week in Grieview

[Photo on East 3rd Street by David Fasano]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

Exclusive: New owners of John's of 12th Street look to carry on the restaurant's tradition (Wednesday)

Lanza's remains closed (Wednesday)

September opening expected for the Second Avenue location of Tompkins Square Bagels (Tuesday)

Scott Stringer's audit blasts City Hall for inaction in Rivington House deed lift (Monday)

Target will pay $2.5 million annually in rent on 14th Street and Avenue A (Friday)

Report: Village View residents considering going private (Thursday, 56 comments)

Gotham Pizza opens on Third Avenue (Tuesday)

Espresso bar-barber shop in the works for 137 Avenue A (Tuesday)

Box Kite Coffee has closed on St. Mark's Place (Wednesday)

The Edge is closing this month on East Third Street after 29 years (Friday)

Workers remove American Elm in Tompkins Square Park (Thursday)

Esperanto Fonda opens on First Street (Friday)

With new building OK'd, corner of Fourth Avenue and 10th Street finally ready for razing (Monday)

Full reveal at 100 Avenue A (Wednesday)

The new Astor Place rolls out the tables, chairs and umbrellas (Thursday, 51 comments)

Mono + Mono coming soon — again! (Monday)

Drunken Dumpling coming soon to First Avenue (Monday)

Police searching for perpetrator who took this flower pot from St. Mark' s Place (Tuesday)

Secchu Yokota serving now omakase tempura on East Third Street (Thursday)

NY Grill & Deli coming to Avenue A and 12th Street (Monday)

Signage arrives for Greek restaurant opening in the former St. Mark's Ale House (Wednesday)

... and a look at the mural for August at Mikey Likes It ice cream, 199 Avenue A near East 12th Street, by Andre Trenier ... the Flavor of the Month is dedicated to Andre the Giant: "The 8th Wonder" with cinnamon toast crunch ice cream ...

Paving the way for smoother streets on 3rd Avenue

Crews started paving the roadway on Third Avenue/Cooper Square on Thursday... here's a look at the smoothness from Ninth Street to St. Mark's Place...break out the roller blades! Or roller skates! Or skateboards! Or illegal hoverboards!





There's still rough roadway south of Seventh Street ... this work is part of the ongoing Astor Place/Cooper Square Reconstruction Project.



The paving is expected to be complete in 2019.

Here's more on what's happening via the Reconstruction Newsletter (PDF!):

Anticipated Work Schedule:
July –September 2016
•Alamo Plaza: Re-install the “Alamo Cube” Sculpture.
Installing trees, shrubs, perennials and Furnishings.
•Subway Plaza: Planting/granite stone installation
•Lafayette, from Astor Pl. to E. 9th: Roadway reconstruction.
•Peter Cooper Park: Installing perennials/trash receptacles.
•Village Plaza: Installing additional skateboard deterrents,
new plants/perennials.
•Third Avenue, from E. 4th to E. 9th Streets: Roadway
reconstruction.
•Mosaic Poles: Installing decorative light poles along Astor
Place. (not powered)
•E. 4th from Bowery to Second Ave: Installing bump-outs.
•Milling and Paving operations throughout project.

East Village Vintage Collective turns 1 today

[Photo from last August by Stacie Joy]

East Village Vintage Collective at 545 E. 12th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B celebrates its 1st brithday today... they'll be having some special deals throughout the day ... leading up to a tiki-themed party tonight from 7-10. (The store opens today at 11 a.m.)

Party People! Come by this weekend for our 1 year anniversary party!! Woot! #vintage #1yearanniversary #eastvillageparty #eastvillagevintagecollective

A photo posted by EV Vintage Collective (@evvintagecollective) on Aug 2, 2016 at 10:20am PDT

Previously on EV Grieve:
At the East Village Vintage Collective

Center lawn halved for the rest of the summer in Tompkins Square Park

Workers yesterday closed off the west half of the lawn in Tompkins Square Park for the rest of the summer, and through September...


[Photo by Steven]

Renovation signage points to "cleaning, seeding, composting."

Regardless of the closure, not everyone heeded the signage yesterday afternoon...


[Photo by Steven]

And this will likely mean that the last free screening (the Leo-Claire version of "Romeo and Juliet") of the summer on Thursday will be on the plaza area.

Checking in on Summer Streets

This was just before 9 a.m. on Fourth Avenue between 13th Street and 12th Street... not too crowded... more runners than cyclists at this moment...

Until 1 p.m. More details here.

Previously

A moment in Tompkins Square Park

Summer is here,
the sky is blue.
Whoa! the red-tailed hawks all sing as if they knew.
Today's the day, we'll say, "I do"

Photo this evening by Greg Masters

Summer of 69

Sham 69 from 1978 for no particular reason.

This weekend: Tompkins Square Park Riot Reunion shows

Here are the lineups:

Aug. 6: Saturday (2-7 pm)
> Simon Chardet
> The Coffin Daggers:
> ISM
> Iconicide
> Nihilistics

Aug. 7: Sunday (1-6 pm)
> Jennifer Blowdryer Punk Soul
> Rockaway Bitch
> Love Pirates
> Sewage
> Hammerbrain

Find more details here.

EV Grieve Etc.: An explanation for an increase in panhandling in Tompkins Square Park

[The usual badminton match outside Cooper Union via Derek Berg]

Claim: An increase in panhandling in Tompkins Square Park is a sign of success with curbing the city's street homelessness population (DNAinfo)

Top health union official played early role in Rivington House deed flip (Politico New York)

Jim Power continues work on mosaic poles that will return to Astor Place (B+B)

Opinion: "The L-train shutdown could be the crisis we've always needed to transform our transit system" (Crain's New York)

Fans wait hours in line for the Drake pop-up shop on the Bowery (DNAinfo)

20th anniversary for the New York International Fringe Festival, starting on Aug. 12 (The Lo-Down)

Hawk sibling steals prized pigeon from brother/sister (Laura Goggin Photography)

"The French Connection" plays at midnight this weekend at the Sunshine (Official website)



When a hotel collapsed on Broadway near Bond (Off the Grid)

Cop Shoot Cop at CBGB (Flaming Pablum)

Diamond Corner now a Bank of America on the Bowery (BoweryBoogie)

Diversions: Interview with former Cramps bassist Fur Dixon (Dangerous Minds)

... and here are a few photos via Derek Berg from Tuesday night's National Night Out Against Crime outside the 9th Precinct on Fifth Street... where officers showed off their basketball and dance skills... (and where was the officer on stilts?)

Target's rent is $2.5 million a year; plus new renderings for 500 E. 14th St.

[Conceptual rendering via RKF]

As you probably know, Target will be opening one of its CityTarget outposts at 14th Street and Avenue A — some day. (There's just one floor visible at the moment.)

The marketing copy via broker RKF says the retail space at 500 E. 14th St. totals 42,367 square feet, including 24,735 square feet on the street level with 17,632 square feet down below. It was believed that Target was taking all this space.

However, according to a report at the Commercial Observer, Target is leasing 27,306 square feet at Extell Development's development.

The lease — for 9,500 square feet at grade and 17,806 square feet below ground — is for 30 years, at which time Target could extend it for another 10 years, according to the source and the memorandum of lease. ... The asking rent was $2.5 million per year, the source told CO.

$2.5 million per year? Why that's only a little more $208,000 a month.

And based on this square footage, it appears that Extell will still have half the retail space at No. 500 to offer a retail tenant. A Trader Joe's perhaps? The two new Trader Joe's in Brooklyn are both 18,000 square feet, per The Real Deal. The new one on the Upper West Side will take 20,000 square feet of space. (I'm not advocating for a Trader Joe's: Extell floated that name earlier this year.)

The CityTarget opening in Tribeca is a reported 45,000 square feet. (And for more size perspective: The Kmart on Astor Place is 140,000 square feet.)

Meanwhile!

The image via RKF above is the conceptual rendering for the Extell project that has been in circulation the past two years.

A projects listing at the website of Leeding Builders Group (LBG), a New York-based construction manager specializing in commercial, residential and hospitality projects, features some different renderings. (There are two addresses — 500 E. 14th St. and 524 E. 14th St. Neither of these renderings are ID'd by address.)





Here's what the website says about this development:

The project’s design consists of three 7-story residential buildings that will complement the surrounding neighborhood. Combined, this new development will house 150 high end rental apartments ranging from studios to three bedrooms. The buildings will also include individual residential lobbies, large retail space, and indoor / outdoor amenity spaces.

Some of the indoor amenities include a pool, fitness center, bike storage facilities, resident’s lounge, and children’s playroom. An important aspect of the outdoor amenity area is the incorporation of green spaces. The second floor apartments in the main tenant area each include a private terrace that runs through the courtyard interior of the buildings. The rooftop of all three towers will be a green roof with mixed private and public spaces. Some features of the public space will include outdoor gardens, ornamental grasses, a full bocce court, pergola covered dining with an open air grill kitchen, and framed hedge walls. LBG Construction Management services included Estimating and Budgeting, Constructability Review, Scheduling Services, Logistical Planning, and Coordination with the design team.

Full bocce court!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Breaking (pretty much!): Target is coming to 14th Street and Avenue A (54 comments)

After 29 years, The Edge is closing on 3rd Street

[Image via Facebook]

The Edge celebrated its 29th year in business Wednesday night by telling patrons that the bar was closing for good at the end of the month.



The owners confirmed that the bar, at 95 E. Third St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue, is closing.

We heard rumors earlier in the week about some landlord issues.

"We'll just say [the landlord] found an opportunity to sue us for a bunch of money that we can't pay," a bar rep told us via text. "It's really disappointing. The bar has been around 29 years as of [Wednesday]. We just celebrated with a Back to the 80s party. A lot of sad people that the bar will no longer be around. It's been a 'living room' for so many people for so many years."

There are no plans at the moment to find a new location.

Public records show that the landlord is Thermald Realty Associates.

Esperanto Fonda is open on 1st Street

Avenue C mainstay Esperanto has opened its satellite location at 58 E. First St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Esperanto Fonda, which has room for some 30 diners, also offers food to go. Per a recent preview at DNAinfo:

Esperanto Fonda will allow patrons to grab to-go-friendly items such as tacos, empanadas, burritos, and a Cubano sandwich with roasted pork loin, ham, melted Swiss cheese and mojo sauce.

The cocktail menu includes the Caipirinha, Mojitos and Brazilian Sangria. (Espernato Fonda's food or drink menus aren't online just yet.)

The previous tenant, BARA, a French/Japanese bar-restaurant, closed after service on June 11.

Summer Streets return tomorrow (Saturday!)

It's that time of year again. Here's the official About:

Summer Streets is an annual celebration of New York City’s most valuable public space — our streets. On three consecutive Saturdays in August, nearly seven miles of NYC's streets are opened for people to play, run, walk and bike. Summer Streets provides space for healthy recreation and encourages New Yorkers to use more sustainable forms of transportation. In 2015, nearly 300,000 people took advantage of the open streets.

Summer Streets is modeled on other events from around the world including Ciclovía in Bogotá, Colombia and the Paris Plage in France and has since inspired other such events around the world such as CicloRecreo Via and London's Regent Street Summer Streets.

Held between 7 am to 1 pm, Summer Streets extends from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park, along Park Avenue and connecting streets, with easy access from all points in New York City, allowing participants to plan a trip as long or short as they wish. All activities at Summer Streets are free of charge, and designed for people of all ages and ability levels to share the streets respectfully.

For us living around Steiner East Village, the car-free, Street-Festival-Free zone includes Lafayette, Astor Place and Fourth Avenue.

As always, there are five different "Rest Stop" activity zones along the route. On Foley Square, a 300-foot, three-story Vita Coco™ Beachside Slide will offer Summer Streeters a chance to stand in line — but only if you pre-registered to stand in line.

Astor Place will host the "Paws and Play Dog Run." Other Astor Place programming tomorrow includes:

During week one, test your athletic prowess by running with Team Citi and the Mets. Summer Streets participants can virtually race a U.S. Olympian, meet three time U.S. National Champion and 2016 U.S. Paralympic Hopeful Scout Bassett, as well as Mrs. Met and pick up some Mets and Olympic swag from the social media vending machines.

And down on Bleecker and Lafayette, a rep from the Mayor's office will be on hand each week to lift a deed restriction on a building for one aspiring landlord.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Takin' it to the streets like the Doobie Brothers

Summer loving had me a blast, Summer loving happened so fast

Workers remove American Elm in Tompkins Square Park

As we understand it, part of the tree broke off about 10 days ago... apparently the trunk was rotting, and workers had to take it down, per Park sources...

EVG correspondent Steven shared these photos...









For reference purposes, the tree was in the Sandra Turner Garden... between Temperance Fountain and the ping-pong table...

54 years on 7th Street

The Post today talks with a handful of New Yorkers who have spent more than 50 years in their homes.

On the list: East Village resident Christine Sachko, 54, who has lived her whole life in the same building near McSorley's on Seventh Street.

Sachko still has the original lease; her parents first paid $26.45. Her monthly bill is $1,500. The apartment next door, once a mirror image of her own, has been renovated to add a second bathroom and more bedrooms, and is currently on the market for $4,690.