Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Ashes to go from 9th and B

Photos by Stacie Joy 

On this Ash Wednesday, Pastor Will offered "ashes to go" from the corner of Ninth Street and Avenue B outside Trinity Lower East Side Lutheran Parish ... pedestrians, cyclists and motorists alike stopped by while EVG contributor Stacie Joy was there...

444 E. 13th St. is on the auction block

444 E. 13th St., a residential building between Avenue A and First Avenue, is available via an auction starting Monday. 

According to the listing, the opening bid is $1.3 million. 

Here's more... 
... the property is a six-story, 17-unit mixed-use walk-up building totaling 12,384 square feet. Eight of the 16 residential units are Free Market, while the remaining eight are Rent Stabilized. The units consist of a mix between one-bedrooms (4), two-bedrooms (9), and three bedrooms (3) apartments. The commercial space is currently vacant and is approximately 812 square feet, with a full basement space featuring 8.5-foot ceiling heights. 
This was the first East Village building that disgraced landlord Raphael Toledano purchased, paying $6.1 million in January 2015. 

In the spring of 2015rent-regulated tenants at 444 accused Toledano and a management company he hired of harassment and intimidation. A staff attorney at the Urban Justice Center, who represented the 13th Street tenants, told reporters during a rally outside the building in May 2015 that "there are tape-recorded conversations where the landlord is threatening to drop dynamite on the building and then let everyone 'figure it out themselves.'"

In 2015, Toledano agreed to pay more than $1 million to settle the harassment claims.

In February 2022New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a court victory against Toledano. An order by the New York Supreme Court barred him from engaging in any New York real-estate business activity for at least five years, at which point he can petition the court for re-entrance.

In May 2021, Madison Realty Capital closed on Toledano's bankrupt East Village portfolio. Toledano had received $124 million in cash and lines of credit from MRC to finance his $97 million purchase of the buildings. 

Toledano, who was in his mid-20s at the time, purchased 28 buildings in two separate portfolios from the Tabak family for $140 million in 2015. Experienced real-estate players raised red flags about Toledano's heavy reliance on debt.  

Previously on EV Grieve:

East Village Buyers moving from 3rd Street to Avenue A

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Thanks to a reader tip, we know the new tenant for the under-renovation retail space at 39 Avenue A

The East Village Buyers consignment shop will be moving from 150 E. Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B to the previous Essex Card Shop storefront between Second Street and Third Street. 

Owner Gabriel Shaulov (second from left in the above photo) told me that he hopes to be in the new space in about a month and that he'd been waiting for more than two years to access the much-larger retail spot in the NYCHA-owned First Houses

The business model will be the same: a high-end consignment shop specializing in sneakers, jewelry and handbags, among other items.

More details about Balkan StrEAT, opening this spring on 2nd Avenue

As previously mentioned, a fast-casual restaurant, Balkan StrEAT, is in the works for the NW corner of Second Avenue and Ninth Street (the former Starbucks). 

An outpost opened on Jan. 24 in the West Village ... prompting this feature last week in Restaurant Hospitality ... which provides some details about what to expect here via chef William Djuric and business partner Jason Correa...
After attending culinary school, Djuric worked in high-end kitchens like Bouchon CafĂ© & Bakery, Gramercy Tavern, and Momofuku Ssam Bar. Correa has worked with the TAO Group for the past 10 years, most recently in the role of director of operations, overseeing day-to-day operations at several of the group's New York establishments. 

In early 2020, Djuric began experimenting with cevapi (Balkan sausages) and other traditional Balkan dishes inspired by his father’s Serbian heritage and his own childhood summers spent in the former Yugoslavia. Balkan StrEAT was born out of a desire to open a restaurant featuring the foods of Djuric's childhood. 

Balkan StrEAT serves traditional Balkan foods found throughout the diverse region, which includes Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Albania. The menu highlights regional favorites, including grilled items like the cevapi, which can be served as a sandwich or a platter. There are also Balkan-style burgers, burek (stuffed phyllo dough pies), and kiflice (traditional crescent-shaped rolls with savory or sweet fillings) 

The menu features rotating seasonal specials like stuffed pork schnitzel and goulash, and desserts include walnut baklava and Balkan donuts called krofne. 
You can find the menu, including fresh baked goods, here.

Jewelry brand opening an outpost on 1st Avenue

Jewelry brand PlayHardLookDope is opening a retail space on First Avenue between Second Street and Third Street. The signage arrived this past week.

Company founders Jon and Ebony started the business in 2017 with a fold-out table in a small popup store on Herald Square ... before opening a flagship store in White Plains.

Urban Wine & Spirits was in this storefront before moving to the corner of Third Street in late 2021.

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Tuesday's parting video

 

Video and text by Greg Masters 

Following a Mardi Gras celebration at Two Boots, where owner Phil Hartman passed out free Swamp Witch Pizza, Boudin Bombinis and beads, the Mona's Marching Band led a second line up Avenue A, through Tompkins Square Park and into Mona's on Avenue B between 13th Street and 14th Street.

Tuesday's parting shot

Actually a Fat Tuesday parting shot ... on Seventh Street via Derek Berg...

Hold it now: No porta potties for Tompkins Square Park during the 18-month field-house renovation

Reconstruction of the Tompkins Square Park field house is expected to start next month. And according to a Parks Department official, during this 18-month project, the city will not provide any portable toilets for public use.

A resident shared an email from a Parks official, who explained that porta potties were not part of the contract "and cannot be supplied during construction." 

The alternative for public use during this period: The restrooms at the McKinley Playground on Fourth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue adjacent to P.S. 63/the Neighborhood School. (The official incorrectly stated that McKinley is on Avenue A.) 
Hopefully, the construction workers will have access to a closer temp toilet during the reconstruction.

The other day, we walked from the center of the Park (the muddy entrance to where the lawn used to be) to McKinley.
Walking at a fairly brisk clip took us five minutes and 40 seconds to get to our temp restroom destination ...
So roughly 12 minutes to and from, not counting time at McKinley. 

Meanwhile, we've had a possible sneak preview of what's to come during the reconstruction in Tompkins Square Park. As we've reported (here and here and here), the public restrooms have been locked to the public since early November. 

Parks officials told us last November that a malfunctioning boiler and a broken pipe in the basement of the field house are to blame. And the Parks Department decided to wait for the reconstruction to make the repairs.

In recent months, readers and residents have noted an uptick in people relieving themselves around the Park (photo below by Derek Berg) and between cars parked along Avenue B and Seventh Street.
Granted, the restrooms in Tompkins, with missing doors and toilet seats, among other things, desperately needed a makeover ... though they were suitable for prompting some nostalgia... A 2019 comptroller's report found that Chinatown and the Lower East Side had the highest percentage (at 40%) of parks restrooms rated as "unacceptable" in the five boroughs.

As for the renovation, per the Parks website, the work is slated to be completed in September 2024. 

So that's two summers without toilets for Park visitors (unless a local elected official can find some financing for the rental and maintenance). The city does provide toilets for the Park's major events, including the Dance Parade in May and the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in August.

Perhaps adult diapers and portable toilets will become the must-have accessories for gatherings in Tompkins Square Park in 2023 and 2024.

An appearance on GMA leads to an attack at Unregular Pizza on 4th Avenue

On Friday, the folks from Unregular Pizza were part of a "pizza showdown" segment in Times Square for "Good Morning America." 

That appearance led to an attack at the shop, 135 Fourth Ave. between 13th Street and 14th Street, on Sunday night, according to the Unregular Pizza Instagram account

Here's part of the post via owner Gabriele Lamonaca ... which also announced the launch of a crowdfunding campaign
... someone we know — led by envy, jealousy and spite — threatened us on Instagram and then came into our store and attacked us and our staff members by throwing glass shakers and ceramic objects. He also shattered our door to pieces. 

This was a traumatic experience and we hope, we will recover soon. One of our team members went to the hospital with a fractured arm. 

In the meantime, we have opened this campaign to payback for the door and medical expenses if there will be any out of pocket. Obviously, we called the police and we hope that justice will be done. These acts of violence and vandalism will not go unnoticed. We won’t let bullies take us down.
Here's a video showing the vandalism at the pizzeria...

The baton-wielding suspect fled the scene in a red Jetta, and remained at large, as of yesterday morning, police and PIX 11 reported.

Lamonaca, who previously worked at East Village restaurants Huertas and Cacio e Vino, made headlines in for his unique bartering system. He started experimenting with his pizza-making skills during the pandemic. From his Harlem apartment, he whipped up a handful of pies every week and made them available via barter. 

He opened his pizzeria on Fourth Avenue in May 2021.

Renovations at Prune

Photos by Stacie Joy 

In recent weeks, multiple EVG readers have told us about extensive renovations happening inside (and out!) at Prune, the highly regarded (and currently closed) restaurant on First Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue...
Prune ownership declined to comment on the renovations and plans for (possibly) reopening. The space has been closed to the public since the pandemic PAUSE of March 2020. (Nearby residents have noted private events and other cooking-related activities inside.)

The website for Gabrielle Hamilton's popular destination says to please check back for updates about a reopening.

Prune fans remain hopeful that the restaurant, which debuted in 1999, will return one of these days. Hamilton's compelling essay — "My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years. Does the World Need It Anymore?" — in the New York Times Magazine during the worst days of the pandemic in April 2020 raised doubts.

Incoming 99-cent pizza shop now with 99-cent pizza signage

A variety of signage has arrived outside the incoming 99-cent pizza spot at 418 E. 14th St. just east of First Avenue.

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.  

Monday, February 20, 2023

Monday's parting shot

Photo today by Derek Berg...

Decision 2023: What screening of 'Cocaine Bear' are you attending?

It's officially "Cocaine Bear" week... which local movie house will you see the 2024 Best Picture winner in? Or will you wait for its release via the Criterion Collection?

 

Site cleanup needed before development can begin on this long-empty corner on 14th and C

As reported last June, there are proposed plans to build a 24-story, 166-unit residential building — including 50 "affordable" units — on the long-vacant lot on the SW corner of 14th Street and Avenue 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).
Thursday is the deadline to comment. This link has information about how to do so. And more background and documents here.
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. 12the 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 CafĂ© 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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Follow EVG on Instagram or Twitter for more frequent updates and pics.

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

Photo by Steven


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

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