As previously noted, this may reset the bargain pizza market... as inflation forced other local cheap-slice merchants to up the price by 51 cents to $1.50.
No word on an opening date here.
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
Incoming 99-cent pizza shop now with 99-cent pizza signage
Monday, February 20, 2023
Decision 2023: What screening of 'Cocaine Bear' are you attending?
Site cleanup needed before development can begin on this long-empty corner on 14th and C
Last year it was revealed that the site at 644 E. 14th St. — across the street from the Con Edison power plant — contains some contamination and city agencies are inviting public comment on the proposed remedy.
Per a fact sheet (PDF):
The public is invited to comment on a proposed remedy being reviewed by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), in consultation with the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), to address contamination related to the 644 East 14th Street Site ...Based on the findings of the investigation, NYSDEC, in consultation with the NYSDOH, has determined that the site does not pose a significant threat to public health or the environment. The decision is based on the soil, groundwater and soil vapor analytical data collected at the site as presented in the Remedial Investigative Report (RIR).
The corner property has been in a stalled-development mode for years. This corner property last housed the single-level R&S Strauss auto parts store, which closed in April 2009.
There are already approved plans for a 15-floor mixed-use building, though no affordable units are attached to this version. As revealed in the spring of 2021, several developers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby the city for NYCHA air rights to make this a larger structure with more housing.
This past spring, the NYCHA and Madison Realty Capital filed documents seeking a non-ULURP modification — known as an LSRD — to the development plan. (Madison Realty Capital paid Opal Holdings $31.3 million for the property in May 2020, and Opal Holdings bought the parcel in June 2016 for $23 million.)
Here are some of the maneuverings necessary to expand the footprint of the building, as first reported by PincusCo:
The application seeks to modify the boundaries of the previously approved plans and zoning calculations by expanding the zoning lot to include 644 East 14th Street (Block 396, Lot 29). Through the zoning lot merger, the development rights from the existing LSRD comprised of Campos Plaza I and II, which are owned by a joint venture that includes NYCHA ... can be transferred to Block 396, Lot 29, a vacant property owned by Madison Realty Capital.
Last June, Community Board 3 signed off on the plan, which will generate $19.5 million for the NYCHA, to be exclusively used at the adjacent Campos Plaza II for capital repairs and other programmatic needs as determined by a community planning process involving NYCHA and the residents of Campos Plaza II.
Our last post on the development has more background, including renderings and some opposition to the building. Per one resident: "While we are all for the development of that corner ... and the affordable housing element of the plans, we are not happy with the sheer size of the footprint and the excessive height that goes along with the proposal."
Aside from the pending site-contamination work, the DOB application for the new building was assigned to a plan examiner on Feb. 1, per public records.
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."
Sunday, February 19, 2023
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
• 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)
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, February 18, 2023
Saturday's parting shot
That sinking feeling again on 7th Street
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
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m., if you haven't been by lately.
Openings: Bagel Market on 14th Street
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.
Friday, February 17, 2023
'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:
The bus stopped here ... after striking the sidewalk bridge on 10th and C
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
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 ...
Last Friday, we had the scoop about the new owner of the long empty/abandoned building.
Contractors here confirmed they will renovate the building — not tearing it down, as a few readers suspected.
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.
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.
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