Sounds of demolition have been coming from inside 112-120 E. 11th St. between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue... as you know, these five former residential buildings are coming down to make way for a 13-story hotel for Marriott’s Moxy brand.
From the street it's difficult to tell just what's going on inside here... But from above...an EVG tipster shared these photos ...
[Click to go big]
...our tipster said that this "roof stripping" has been going on all week...
To date, we haven't seen any renderings for this 300-room hotel aimed toward the Millennial set. Stonehill & Taylor are the architects of record. They designed the one going up in Chelsea.
For some idea of what we might be in for here... check out the rendering for the West 28th Street location...
There's been work going on inside the New York Central Art Supply's former warehouse space on 12th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.
Yesterday, the signage went up for the new tenant: Switch, described as "New York's First Playground." (Also, "Forget the gym. Come play.")
There's a website where you can sign up to receive more info.
According to the Commercial Observer, Switch Playground is a South Africa-based group fitness concept. The company is opening a location in Soho too.
Its website says that Switch "combines carefully selected aspects of cardiovascular training, functional training, boxing, plyometric training, core stability and power-flow yoga to create a perfectly balanced playground for the body and soul." They have two locations in South Africa.
Here's a sneak preview of Switch life...
And we need to add this to the list of EV gym options...
I've walked by the residential building at 407 E. 12th St. on my way to and from Academy Records between Avenue A and First Avenue so many times ... and I never thought much of it.
But apparently it's pretty nice on the inside, based on a new listing for this two-bedroom condo. Bond New York has the listing, which describes the home as an "East Village beauty":
Not–to-be-missed gorgeous two bedroom, two bath, condo beauty in the heart of the East Village. This home is a must-see embodying all that a hip, cool, understatedly elegant apartment has to offer, not to mention EXTREMELY LOW MONTHLY CHARGES!!
Leave the hustle bustle of the vibrant East Village behind as you enter this pin-drop quiet home. The unit boasts a comfortable and spacious living room with an open kitchen and gracious dining area perfect for entertaining or just cozy, quiet nights at home. The entire apartment is outfitted with remote controlled ceiling fans and air conditioners in every room for perfect room temperature preference.
The kitchen has been newly appointed with custom made touches that lend a homey country feel with built-in shelving for your favorite cookbooks and nick knacks. The butcher block counter is a wide planked, two toned, deconstructed Cherry wood kitchen island with extra deep, quiet-close drawers. A washer/dryer is included for convenience.
There's also shared space out back and on the roof...
Asking price: $1.75 million. There's an Open House Sunday from noon to 1:30 p.m.
In recent weeks the storefront at 156 First Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street has been transformed into the Modern Love Club.
The space is the work of Amy Van Doran, who has operated a longtime matchmaking service. (You can read an interview about all this here.)
During the day, Van Doran and her business partner, Emily Lesser, run the matchmaking company from the space. And on the weekends, it moonlights as the Love Museum.
And tomorrow (Saturday!), Van Doran is hosting the Love Museum's first exhibition, titled "Girls I Love." Per the Facebook invite:
It's a show featuring the work of some of my most favorite ladies, and we can't wait to share space and the love with you.
Offical opening Oct. 8 5-9 pm
Show ongoing until Nov. 5.
There will be paintings, performance art by Bode, tarot readings by Sarah Moran, Pornkus by: Margaret Meehan, champs, DJ's AndrewAndrew, Featuring the work by: Kirsten Bode, Jenna Gribbon, Loretta Mae Hirsch, Sarah Moran, Carly Silverman, and Sera Sloane
Curation by: Marina Press and Amy Van Doran
In an email, Van Doren said that the Modern Love Club "bridges my East Village dreams, love of durational performance art, community, weirdness, chaos, and the obsession for connection."
A man found what may be a human heart in the trash this morning outside the Riis Houses on the FDR Drive and Sixth Street, according to published reports.
As DNAinfo reported, the man reached into the trash to retrieve a discarded potted plant and found the organ inside a pink box.
Tats Cru created a new mural today on the wall on Second Street at Avenue A... it's an ad for GrowNYC’s Healthy Exchange Project ... specifically the local Greenmarkets that accept SNAP/EBT...
There's more space reserved for the mural specialists ...
The members of Tats Cru have created several murals here in recent years, including one of Jeremy Lin... this wall has also seen at least two marriage proposals. Here and here.
Thanks to @billspector for letting us know about the new mural!
Oh yeah. The Daily Newsreports that two EMTs were responding to a 911 call on 14th Street and Avenue B last night around 9 ... when, unrelated to their call, EMT Bruce Fonseca and his partner "heard loud screams for help."
Per the News:
The duo ran to the source of blood-curdling screams and found two men in a fight — one of them armed with a very large knife.
Fonseca radioed for help while his partner took on the angry assailant.
The EMT was able to get the weapon away from the attacker while Fonseca subdued him.
The article doesn't mention what the two men were fighting about... or what the original 911 call was about...
A reader shared this from 14th Street and First Avenue... there was a report of a fire on the tracks... service is currently suspended after Lorimer and in Manhattan...
A reader heard a man at the scene say that he was going to erect a fence there to keep the travelers/crusties from sleeping out front. (Seems as if the fence would only encourage people to camp there....)
Anyway! There were reports that the fence moved to Second Avenue and Seventh Street. Then back to St Mark's Place. And more sections arrived.
Anyway! (Again.) The whole thing can be yours now... it is for sale...
Back in June, we noted that this fine single-family townhouse at 215 E. 12th St. was on the market for $16 million. (The place is owned by a founder of the Kate Spade brand.)
Well, it's a good thing that you waited before pouncing on this property. According to The Real Deal, the price of the home — dubbed the "Kate Spade House" by the publication — between Second Avenue and Third Avenue has been reduced by 25 percent to $12 million. (Woo!)
Public records show that the home last changed hands for $4.3 million in 2007. Sloane Square NYC has the listing.
There are a few items of interest to note on CB3's SLA committee docket this month.
Among them: There are applicants seeking a new liquor license for 29 Second Ave. between First Street and Second Street. This is the former home of The Cock until the crew moved to the Lit Lounge space back in December.
There are not a lot of details on the questionnaire (PDF!) on file at the CB3 website.
The document shows proposed hours for the unnamed establishment as 3 p.m. to 4 a.m. Monday-Friday, and noon to 4 a.m. on the weekend. Occupancy includes 18 tables that will seat 40 people... there's a menu that will feature specialty sandwiches.
While the applicants have not been licensed previously to sell liquor, the applicants have restaurant experience (Cafe Select in Soho, Toro in Chelsea, among them). One of the applicants is Maxx Starr, a co-owner of Fun City Tattoo, which opened at 94 St. Mark's Place back in 1989.
The October SLA committee meeting is Oct. 13 at 6:30 p.m. Location: The Thelma Burdick Community Room, 10 Stanton St. at the Bowery.
Just closing the IHOP-renovation loop ... the restaurant is back open (actually as of Monday afternoon, per an employee) here on 14th Street near Second Avenue (aka, IHOP Way).
The so-called flexible-format Target store opened yesterday in Tribeca.
I mention this because this is the model for the specialty Target that is set to open on 14th Street and Avenue A in, oh, 2018... the store will anchor Extell's 7-story retail-residential complex...
[Photo from yesterday]
Follow the arrow to the Target...
Here's more on Target's new concept via an article yesterday in USA Today:
The new smaller-format stores are a way of reaching customers who might otherwise have trouble becoming Target stalwarts. Of the 15 new stores Target is opening this year, 14 will be the smaller, more curated models.
The Tribeca store features several hallmarks of Target’s overall strategy to become a one-stop shop for customers, including a section where shoppers can buy fresh, organic groceries, and an emphasis on merchandise categories such as wellness and fashion.
But each of the smaller stores also is designed to cater to the tastes and needs of the specific neighborhood where it is located. The walls of the Tribeca store are decorated with a graffiti-like mural that was drawn with a felt-tip marker.
In a dense section of Manhattan where people rely on the subway and taxis to get around, there is no automotive section, unlike many of Target’s larger suburban locations. (Lack of parking, in fact, is one of the store's bigger challenges.) And in a neighborhood full of professionals and young couples with babies, there are plenty of baby strollers, and smaller furniture that would better fit into tiny apartments.
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...
If you walked down St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue in the past, oh, 24 hours, then you likely noticed the 1950s TV transformation for Amazon's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."
Set in the 1950s, the project centers on Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Brosnahan), who had her life mapped out for herself: go to college, find a husband, have 2.5 kids and throw the best Yom Kippur dinners in her elegant Manhattan apartment. But when her life takes an unexpected turn, Midge will have to decide quickly what else she’s good at. Going from uptown housewife to a stand-up comic in a grungy club in the Village is an appalling choice to everyone but Midge.
Tony Shalhoub and Michael Zegen (Bugsy Siegel on "Boardwalk Empire") are also in the drama's cast.
EVG Vintage Car Correspondent Derek Berg checked out the working props...
Thankfully there's a tire repair place now on the block for all these cars...
Crews were also spotted filming a scene at Josie's last night on Sixth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.
Signs say that crews will be filming this afternoon into the early morning hours (4 a.m.) on St. Mark's Place.
News of the filming apparently annoyed some residents (or visitors!) of 94-96 St. Mark's Place. Page Six noted that people defaced the flyer about the shoot inside the building's entrance.
“Fuck off,” one person wrote, while another added to the bottom, “You better hope I have nowhere to be during this, or your fucking ‘scene’ is ruined!”
The East Village locations of the Bean, including the one on First Avenue at Ninth Street, are taking part in a one-day anniversary promo for "Gilmore Girls."
Today apparently marks the 16th anniversary of the show's first episode.
In this ongoing feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.
Name: Jamey Poole and Rusty James Occupation: “Being a New Yorker” Location: 6th Street and 1st Avenue Time: 3:45 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 1
I’m from Texas originally. I’ve been in the East Village for 20 years. Art school brought me here. I went to Parsons. I went to school for photography and I work for a photographer now. And life in the city was so intoxicating that I couldn’t leave. I came directly here. It was the only neighborhood I would ever want to live in when I moved here in 1996. It was the history of the place, the creativity, the kind of people it attracted, the whole environment – all of it. There was no question about it.
It was all of downtown. It was very vibrant. Everybody you wanted to know or make friends with or do any kind of creative projects with lived between 23rd Street and Canal and river to river basically. You’d walk outside your door and meet all kinds of cool people, start a band, start a magazine, start a gallery, do an art collective — whatever. It was very concentrated.
Even though I love visiting all my friends in Bushwick or in Jersey or in Astoria, it’s like the creative nucleus has really been blown apart. So it’s hard, you know. If you’re like 22 and you move to the city now, you start a band and your keyboardist lives in Sunset Park, your singer’s in Jersey City, the drummer lives up in Washington Heights. So it’s really hard to have that creative community. I miss that. I’m not [complaining] but I do miss that. I miss having the creative concentration of everybody in one general area. It’s not too easy to go over and have dinner. It’s a whole production.
I mean it’s not like it’s not happening. It is happening. The drag scene in Bushwick is off the chain. It’s really amazing. There’s tons of cool stuff around Bushwick, but that shit is fucking far from where I live. My friend lives in Bushwick and it takes me an hour and a half to get there.
It’s just that the East Village had more time to really blossom. Williamsburg, that whole thing happened within a decade. The immigrants, the artists, the students, the money, that wave happened so quickly — 10 or 15 years in Williamsburg. So nothing took root that well, whereas in the East Village there were decades and decades for that kind of creative spirit, and so you could feel it. You could feel the character of the place, and you don’t feel that in Williamsburg. The artistic time that happened there came and went like that. I still love it. I have tons of friends who live over there and I love hanging out in Williamsburg, but it doesn’t have the deep roots.
I’m going to Asbury Park to the Zombie Walk. I love Asbury Park. The Zombie Walk is really cool. It’s been going on for around 10 years. I went last year for the first time. They start at the convention center, walk down the boardwalk, then on Main Street, and there are all these parties. Asbury Park is where it’s at. It seems a little early to dress up but whatever.
James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.
Back in July, Rose and Basil opened at 104 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.
The cafe, which serves coffee and a variety of homemade desserts, is owned by Ioana Holt, who launched the business with her college friend William Wang.
The two had their grand opening this past Friday... EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by...
[Wang and Holt]
Holt shared more about her background and how this storefront came about:
I come from a humble family in Romania and have always been passionate about food. I moved to the U.S. after a driven academic career in Romania and Austria to study at NYU. I sustained myself all my life by working in the food industry. Almost a year ago I left NYU in order to pursue ... Rose and Basil.
Rose and Basil was born in a little apartment in Soho. I worked from home doing special orders and fulfilling the ones on the Rose and Basil website.
That was until this March when I reconnected with William Wang, whom I was friends with in college. William comes from China and studies economics at NYU. He’s always had a mind for business and heart for food.
I brought him some chocolates and told him about my dream of opening a cafe.
Suddenly we were looking for rents in East Village and buying fridges and chia seeds online.
There was some confusion about what exactly 'MericaNYC is going to be at 320 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue. Is it an actual restaurant? Is it just a pop-up creation for the last legs of Election 2016? Is someone just trolling neighbors?
As we understand it, 'America NYC is a venture between the owner of the previous restaurant in this space, Zerza, and his neighbors a few doors away at the Tim Burton-themed Beetle House. (The Beetle House owners, Zach Neil and Brian Link, also operate Stay Classy, the bar for Will Ferrell fans on Rivington Street.)
Zerza owner Radouane Eljaouhari left a lengthy comment about 'Merica NYC, and how it came about, on the EVG post from Friday. He mentioned that Neil would come in from Beetle House for a meal, and that they engaged in wide-ranging conversations on a variety of topics.
Yes I am a restaurateur but I have great interests in other things as well and like many of you, I enjoy debates and politics.
Some readers were turned off by the 'Merica NYC menu items, such as The Kanye, "Fried breast of chicken tossed in a creamy rich Alfredo sause served over mashed potatoes, then drizzled with a balsamic glaze. This meal will make you into a famous rapper and a narcissistic asshole. Ask the public to loan you the money for it."
The menu items have since been removed from 'Merica NYC's Facebook page. At this point we don't know if they are actual menu items or just someone's idea of humor leading up to the grand opening.
In any event, back to Eljaouhari's comment:
At the end of the day, it is going to be a restaurant that will sell two main items: Food and Beverages. It is going to be a business that will provide a few job opportunities to a few students and a few kitchen staff, like us, individuals with families that have obligations to pay their bills. We are all looking forward to succeeding.
Please be patient and give it a chance before you give your verdicts and most importantly wish us luck.
The restaurant is expected to open soon.
Here are some of Neil's Instagram posts from August promoting the new establishment... (Updated 10 a.m.: The posts have been removed the account is now private...)
