Renovation activity at the previous home of the Essex Card Shop on Avenue A

Photos by Stacie Joy 

Updated 2/22: Thanks to the reader comments, we now know who the new tenant is — East Village Buyers, relocating here from Third Street. Find the story here.

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Renovations are underway inside the vacant storefront at 39 Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street...

Unfortunately, workers at the space said they didn't know who the new tenant would be...

Until 2020, the space was home to Essex Card Shop... which moved one block to the north.

Last summer, the Cooper Square Committee, Village Preservation and East Village Community Coalition released a report titled "Crisis and Adaptation: Storefront Trends in the East Village, 2019 – 2021," ...  which named these retail spaces in the NYCHA-owned First Houses on Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street as "vacancy hotspots." 

A Commodities post-mortem

Photos by Stacie Joy 

Some of the non-perishable items from the recently shuttered Commodities Health Food store on First Avenue live on. 

Yesterday, EVG contributor Stacie Joy discovered that John (pictured above) was able to rescue some of the shop's bulk supplies from being discarded, including several grains and granolas ... which were available yesterday for anyone to take at La Plaza Cultural, the community garden on the SW corner of Ninth Street and Avenue C. (The gravity bins were up for grabs too.)

We're told that John was going to take any remaining items, such as canned goods, and donate them to a food pantry.

On Jan. 12, the landlord took legal possession of 165 First Ave. just north of 10th Street — which had been home to Commodities for 30 years. The space is now for rent.

Week in Grieview

Posts that past week included (with a photo Friday on St. Mark's Place by Derek Berg) ... 

• RIP Travis 'Grim' Durkin (Tuesday) 

• On 2nd Avenue, historic Isaac T. Hopper House hits the market for the first time in 149 years (Monday) 

• Immaculate Conception School is closing (Friday) 

• The archives of The East Village Eye now at the New York Public Library (Tuesday)

• The squash court at Hamilton Fish Park has been demolished (Tuesday) 

• East River Greenway now closed along the Con Ed power plant (Thursday) 

• Building out O'Flaherty's (Wednesday) 

• A petition and more cinder blocks for the former P.S. 64/Charas/El Bohio Community Center (Thursday) 

• Just 17 floors to go at the all-new 360 Bowery (Wednesday) 

• A new song and video from Hello Mary! (Friday) 

• Asbestos abatement for the long-abandoned 6 Avenue B (Friday) 

• Openings: Union Square Travel Agency: A Cannabis Store (Monday)

• A 2nd Avenue sidewalk now and then (Monday)

• A for-rent sign arrives at the former Café Cortadito as the curbside dining structure exits (Friday) 

• The renovations happening inside the all-new Bleecker Street Bar on Broadway (Thursday)

• Report: A roadblock for the relocation of New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and sale of its land (Thursday) 

• The bus stopped here ... after striking the sidewalk bridge on 10th and C (Friday) 

• Village Happy House Convenience coming to 2nd Avenue (Tuesday) 

• Openings: Bagel Market on 14th Street (Saturday) 

• Baya Bar bringing the açai bowls to Union Square (Monday) 

• The vacant storefront on this corner of 10th and 1st will be... (Wednesday) 

 ... and just a friendly/helpful reminder if you own a car...

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More details about Immaculate Conception School, set to close this spring

Photo by Steven

More details are emerging about the upcoming closure of the Immaculate Conception School on 13th Street.

This past week, the Archdiocese of New York announced that 12 Catholic schools will cease operations at the end of the 2022-23 academic year.

In a letter to parishioners dated Wednesday, Immaculate Conception pastor Father Kevin Nelan said that the school, down to 135 students in K-8, was expected to lose around $900,000 over the past two years.

"The parish can no longer sustain such deficits," he wrote.

Our Town talked with parents about the closing.

"A lot of the parents are shell shocked," said Carolyn Colon, a mom of a seventh-grade son who also runs the parish Scouting program. She said it comes at a particularly difficult time because parents in seventh grade were starting to scout for high schools and getting ready to take the Catholic school high school admission test early in the 8th grade. "We'll be losing the one person we thought could help us through the admission process," she said, referring to 8th-grade teacher Joan Wise.

And what about the future of the school building between Avenue A and First Avenue?

"I'm sure some vultures [will be] coming around," said Father Nelan. But he said since it shares a lot of facilities with the church, it would be hard to separate. He said he could see renting out the gym to someone like neighborhood pickleballers looking for space. But of the school building, he said, "We'd hope we can help the non-profits and stay in the religion business."

A weekend-only pop-up flower shop on Avenue B

Photos by Stacie Joy 

East Village resident Andrea Fabano has opened a pop-up floral shop on weekends at 106 Avenue B between Sixth Street and Seventh Street ...

She plans on being in the space through July. 

For now, her hours are noon to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Find her on Instagram here.

Saturday's parting shot

Crate digging at A-1 Record Shop on Sixth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...

That sinking feeling again on 7th Street

Several EVG readers pointed out a collapsed portion of the sidewalk outside 84 E. Seventh St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue... happened sometime last night...

... apparently a flashback gift from the ConEd/DEP Hell Summer of 2021 Work on the block. 

Anyway, we understand that the building's landlord will block off this section of the sidewalk until city repairs can be made. 

The business here, AuH20 Thriftique, an excellent vintage shop, will be open per usual from noon to 7 p.m. 

H/T Cara!

EVG Etc.: Landlords challenge NYC rent laws; city seeks next Nightlife Mayor

Photo yesterday on 2nd Avenue by Derek Berg 

• Some landlords want the Supreme Court to overturn NYC's rent regulation laws (Gothamist) 

• It is Community Board application season (The City) 

• At the ribbon-cutting for the renovated new home of La MaMa (PIX11 ... previously on EVG) 

• Ya-Ting Liu, a former transit advocate, will become New York City’s director of the public realms (Streetsblog)

• Ariel Palitz, the current founding director of the Office of Nightlife, is officially stepping down from her role at the end of April (Time Out) 

• A visit to SOS Chefs on Avenue B (Eater)

• With Mary Ellen Mark's "Streetwise" as the blueprint, a young photographer captures teens who gravitated to Tompkins Square Park (i-D Magazine) 

• See "Citizen Kane" on a big screen this weekend (Anthology Film Archives) 

• Three chances to see David Cronenberg's "Videodrome" on a big screen (Metrograph) 

• The artists resisting the gentrification of Chinatown (Hyperallergic) 

• "Raw Power" turns 50 (The Wall Street Journal)

Letter perfect

Designer Olive Panter has replicated the 23k Boston gild lettering designed decades back for the International Bar (highlights reel here) ... which has had several East Village iterations, since 2017 at 102 First Ave. at Sixth Street. 

Open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m., if you haven't been by lately.

Openings: Bagel Market on 14th Street

Bagel Market debuted this past week at 238 E. 14th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. (Thanks for letting us know, Pinch!) 

The shop is open daily from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Find a menu here.

As we noted on Jan. 6, this is the fifth NYC outpost for the brand that started in the summer of 2020.

The business takes over for Bagel Boss, the chainlet that opened a location here in July 2021. They closed several months later in October for, per management, "gas and electric problems" in the building. Bagel Boss never reopened here.  

'Special' delivery

 

Local faves Hello Mary — Helena Straight, Stella Wave and Mikaela Oppenheimer — released a new single yesterday ahead of the band's full-length debut on March 3. 

Enjoy this "Special Treat."

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• Hello Mary takes the stage at Webster Hall 

• An afternoon out with Hello Mary

The bus stopped here ... after striking the sidewalk bridge on 10th and C

Lots of reader pics from this afternoon... when an M14D cut the turn a little tight on the NE corner of Avenue C and 10th Street and struck the sidewalk bridge...

There weren't any reports of injuries, and the workers were on the scene to secure the sidewalk bridge, which has taken a few hits through the years...

Thanks to Jose Garcia, EVJackie and everyone else for sending along photos!

This afternoon in photos of full rotation excavators (TB153fr edition)

Photo by Stacie Joy 

Transformer-replacement work continues at the ConEd substation along Avenue A, Fifth Street, and Sixth Street... it's quite a production, as anyone who has stood outside Sophie's (or lives in the immediate area) can attest...

Immaculate Conception School is closing

Photo by Steven

The Archdiocese of New York announced this week that 12 Catholic schools will cease operations at the end of the 2022-23 academic year, including Immaculate Conception on 13th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. 

This is the last Catholic grade school (serving students K-8) in the East Village.

Per NY1:

There was a shift in demographics and lower enrollment at the schools that are closing, according to officials. This was made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Archdiocese reported spending between $500 million and $700 million to support the schools closing, which they say is unsustainable.

The school dates to 1864 (find a PDF with history here), part of the Immaculate Conception church when it was at 505 E. 14th St. The church, on the north side of 14th, was demolished in the 1940s to make way for Stuy Town. 

The school's current building was completed in 1945. Per Wikipedia: 

In 1943 the parish took over the chapel and hospital buildings now known as Church of the Immaculate Conception and Clergy Houses, completed in 1896 to designs by Barney and Chapman and formerly owned by Grace Church. This existing facility was expanded with a four-story brick convent and parochial school at 415-419 E. 13th St. and 414-416 E. 14th St. ... and completed in 1945.

The archdiocese shut down St. Brigid School, founded in 1856, at the end of the 2018-2019 school year.  The St. Brigid School building remains on the corner of Seventh Street and Avenue B. In 2022, a handful of NYC public school teachers who received medical or religious exemptions to the city's COVID-19 vaccine mandate were working remotely from the school. 

Asbestos abatement for the long-abandoned 6 Avenue B

Photos yesterday by Stacie Joy 

The first steps in the gut renovation of 6 Avenue B are underway. Workers have started the asbestos abatement here on the NW corner of Avenue B and Houston ...

Contractors here confirmed they will renovate the building — not tearing it down, as a few readers suspected.

Last Friday, we had the scoop about the new owner of the long empty/abandoned building.

The owner is an LLC linked to Penn Capital South, whose portfolio includes multiple EV properties.

According to public records, the building changed hands for just $1.05 million. However, the new owners also had to pay $4.2 million in real property transfer and real estate transfer taxes.

As we've pointed out (here and here), the building is in dismal shape and will need significant work to bring it up to code. (The DOB has cited No. 6 for emergency repairs several times in recent years.)

This was one of the abandoned buildings owned by the estate of the mysterious team of Arthur and Abraham Blasof, both long deceased. However, No. 6 has been generating some income with the cell-phone towers on the roof.  

Stay tuned for more news about the building next week...

A for-rent sign arrives at the former Café Cortadito as the curbside dining structure exits

Photos by Stacie Joy 

Workers yesterday removed the remains of the curbside dining structure from the now-closed Café Cortadito at 210 E. Third St., just east of Avenue B. 

The Cuban restaurant closed at the end of January after 18 years in business following a rent increase from $8,000 to $15,000 per month. 

Ricardo Arias and Patricia Valencia, the husband-and-wife owners, said they would be dismantling the curbside dining structure. Before workers hauled off the remains of the structure, the owners had donated some salvageable parts to the nearby community garden and given away remnants to patrons who requested a souvenir from the restaurant.

Meanwhile, a for-rent banner arrived on the gate... (perhaps cooling the rumors that next-door neighbor Poco would take over the space)...

The broker is also repping the other available storefront in the building — the former Solo Pizza, which closed last fall on the Avenue B side for unspecified reasons. (Allegedly a rent hike, per sources.) 

As for Café Cortadito, Arias and Valencia hope to relocate nearby.

Thursday's parting shot

Photo by Steven 

Multiple readers have mentioned this barricaded chair on the NE corner of Fifth Street and Second Avenue... we are on it. #FreeTheChair

East River Greenway now closed along the Con Ed power plant

Multiple EVG readers shared the news that, as of Monday, the East River Greenway is closed for "construction activities" between 20th Street and 14th Street, including the narrow passage along the FDR and Con Edison power plant. (Thanks to Laurie Schulwolf for the photo!)

The notice states the work would begin starting the week of Feb. 6, though it turned out to be Feb. 13.

Per the notice:

Current access to the Ferry will not be impacted. All cyclists should follow the Greenway detour below and posted signage. The Greenway north of E 20th Street will remain open to the community. Access East River Park at the E 10th Street pedestrian bridge or the Houston Street overpass.

A worker at the scene said this passage would be closed for two months. 

This is part of the $1.45 billion East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) project in East River Park. Workers are burying the 57.5-acre park under fill, cutting down 1,000 trees and elevating the land by 8-to-10 feet above sea level to protect the area from future storm surges. The city has said they will maintain public access to a minimum of 42 percent of the park throughout construction, which is expected to be complete by the end of 2026. 

In June 2021, then-Mayor de Blasio announced new city funding to add more amenities to the ESCR project, including a $129 million flyover bridge to elevate the Greenway over this notorious pinch point along the East River.

Per the city's press release at the time:

 • $129 million, in a separate capital project, to the Department of Transportation to fully fund a future flyover bridge that will improve bike and pedestrian access through this critical part of the Greenway. The bridge will span the pinch point area of the Manhattan Greenway as it passes 14th Street along the East River, where the Greenway narrows to just a few feet wide to fit between the river, the FDR Drive and adjacent Con Edison facilities. The bridge construction will be coordinated with ESCR.

We have yet to see a timeline for this bridge work. 

A petition and more cinder blocks for the former P.S. 64/Charas/El Bohio Community Center

We thought the construction team sealing up the former P.S. 64/Charas/El Bohio Community Center had wrapped up their emergency work.

However, yesterday, a reader noted a worker putting cinder blocks over an entrance on the 10th Street side of the building... and over a mural of LES activist, actor, and playwright Bimbo Rivas. (Last month, workers told EVG contributor Stacie Joy that they've actually "preserved" the artwork here, claiming that there is an inch or two between the masonry and the painting.)

The workers, who arrived on Dec. 20, told Stacie that they were sealing up some remaining windows and putting down 2x4s to shore up the ground-floor banisters and flooring on the building's Ninth Street and 10th Street sides here between Avenue B and Avenue C. 

The former school and community center had been easy to access in recent years, attracting a variety of urban thrillseekers and partygoers. The broken windows and poorly secured doors also exposed the building to the elements — not to mention pigeons.

According to workers, they've actually "preserved" the artwork here (two murals were mostly covered), saying that there is an inch or two between the masonry and the painting, so it is not being disturbed and that no mortar abuts the work.

Meanwhile, as reported late last month, the landmarked building is headed to a foreclosure auction in March. 

According to The Real Deal, a court-appointed referee set an auction for the property at the Hilton New York Midtown Fifth Avenue on March 22. (As previously noted, the 135,000-square-foot building is zoned for "community facility use." Any conversion to a condoplex or residential housing would require a zoning variance.)

There's now a petition in circulation titled, "Save Charas Community Center! Stop the Private Auction!"

Per the petition, which states, "Demand Mayor Adams use eminent domain to return the center to the people!"

For 22 years, from 1979 to 2001, 605 E. Ninth St. served as the home to the Charas/El Bohio Community & Cultural Center. Each year, thousands of people attended programs there. Charas hosted community meetings, children’s programming, art exhibits, music concerts, film screenings, plays, dance recitals, bicycle recycling, construction and youth jobs training, substance abuse treatment, and political organizing. 

In 1998, Rudy Giuliani sold Charas to a campaign contributor [Gregg Singer] for a paltry $3.15 million, and in December of 2001, Charas was evicted from the space, and the center was shuttered.

You can find the petition here.

And our previous post has more background. 

Report: A roadblock for the relocation of New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and sale of its land

Mount Sinai Beth Israel's plan to merge New York Eye and Ear Infirmary (NYEEI) within its system and then sell the prime real-estate facilities in the East Village has hit a "snag," the Post reports. 

A New York State Department of Health committee declined the hospital system's merger proposal.

The DOH panel, known as the New York Public Health and Health Planning Council, voted 11-6 to approve the merger, but it was three votes short of the number needed under the panel's rules. Those who voted no said that, among other issues, Mount Sinai had kept the community in the dark about its plans and dodged questions from the DOH itself. 

The committee's vote is not the final word, as it must be affirmed by DOH Acting Commissioner James V. McDonald, who was named to the post on Jan. 1. A source said it was "rare" for a commissioner to overrule the planning council. 

The Infirmary owns two buildings here — 14th Street and Second Avenue and 13th Street and Second Avenue — and the vacant lot on 13th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue. 

Sources told the Post that the parcel "could fetch up to $70 million if sold for apartment-building construction."

Dr. Howard Berliner, a DOH panel member who voted against the merger ... alluded at the hearing to concerns that Mount Sinai aimed to dismantle NYEEI so that it could cash in on a property sale. 

"If I was a real estate developer, I would be drooling at the prospect of getting the [NYEEI] site in the East Village, probably one of the hottest markets in New York City," Berliner said.

Earlier this month, local elected officials wrote to Mount Sinai CEO Kenneth Davis and urged him to pause its proposal.

Last spring, Village Preservation made an appeal to have 218 Second Ave. at 13th Street landmarked.

Previously