Taxi Relief Stand arrives on Avenue A; Punjabi Grocery & Deli relieved

The Taxi Relief Stand has arrived sooner than expected, and is now in place on Avenue A between Houston and East Second Street… the posted hours are 7 a.m.. to 7 p.m…



A quickie recap of what has been happening:

The ongoing East Houston Reconstruction Project is having a major impact on Punjabi Grocery & Deli's business on East First Street between Avenue A and East Houston.

Through the years, cab drivers made up a sizable portion of Punjabi's business. The reconstruction, however, has prevented drivers from being able to stop by for an inexpensive vegetarian meal here at 114 E. First St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. (Owner Jashon Singh told BoweryBoogie in the spring that his sales are down some 60 percent in the past five years during the roadwork.)

The Taxi Relief Stand has seemingly been some sort of hot-potato issue among various city agencies. In any event, CB3's Transportation & Public Safety/Environment Committee voted to support the cab stand at its May 12 meeting.

At the time, however, the city said a decision on an exact location must wait until the end of the summer, when the long-delayed construction project was expected (ha!) to be completed, per The Lo-Down.

Looks as if someone got the Stand fast-tracked, as it arrived this week. (Updated 6-5: This stand is only temporary, we didn't point out. The verdict on the final location will come once the construction is done along Houston and East First Street.)



Meanwhile, Taxi Relief Stand or not, the plaza in front of Punjabi is as construction-fucked as ever.



You have to follow a narrow maze of barricades to enter Punjabi…



A spokesperson from the Department of Design and Construction told NY1 yesterday that the agency has continued to reach out to Punjabi. The spokesperson said that they have started aggressively working at the site again and expect work to be done this summer.

Eventually here's how the new Greenstreets and street configurations at Avenue A and Houston will look ...



Previously on EV Grieve:
How you can help Punjabi Grocery & Deli stay in business

Never-ending construction continues to hurt Punjabi Grocery & Deli

VolaVida Gallery opens tonight on East 4th Street

[Photo from last weekend via Instagram]

The VolaVida Gallery makes its debut tonight at 240 East Fourth Street … just west of Avenue B.

Here's info on the space and first exhibit via the EVG inbox...

New Urban Expressionism is the premiere exhibition at VolaVida Gallery. This two-week show starts on Thursday June 4 and will feature some of the top names in NYC's street art community such as Adam Dare, Hektad, Uncutt Art, XO,RS, Don J, Nicholai Khan, Flood Club, King Amsterdam, Raquel Echanique, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Gazoo to the Moon, Hue, ArtWeAll and Chris Prandy.

VolaVida represents some of NYC's most popular and up-and-coming artists. Our goal is to help artists share their craft without relinquishing their integrity. Through social events and gallery exhibits we intend to create an atmosphere that is welcoming and inspirational to artists and art lovers from all walks of life.

VolaVida Collective is the product of Maurice Whitaker and Laura K. Reich (aka Lulu) partnering with creatives to spread love through art.

Exhibit Hours
Thursday June 4th thru June 17th
Opening Reception June 4th 5pm to 9pm
General Hours: 12pm to 8pm Daily

Commercial space available for rent at 117 2nd Ave.

A for rent banner arrived this week in the second-floor window at 117 Second Ave., in the vacant space above San Marzano at East Seventh Street.

We didn't find any information about the space online. (The phone number is for AAG Management, Inc., who oversees a handful of East Village properties.)

The building is owned by Maria Hrynenko, the landlord of 121 Second Ave., the site of the deadly gas explosion on March 26. Hrynenko has not been accused of any wrongdoing by authorities, according to the Times. The district attorney's office is investigating the explosion, which may have occurred after workers improperly tapped a gas line at 121 Second Ave.

[Updated] Workers removing damaged linden tree from Tompkins Square Park

[Photo by William Klayer]

The tree near Temperance Fountain was apparently damaged during Monday night's storm ... one passerby said that it appeared to be hollowed out. Crews arrived this morning to take down the tree.


[Photo by Derek Berg]


[WK]


[WK]

... and later...


[Photo by EVG reader Steven]

With space too expensive in the East Village, Pommes Frites will reopen on MacDougal Street

[Image via]

Pommes Frites lost its Second Avenue home of 18 years in the deadly gas explosion this past March 26.

The owners wanted to reopen somewhere in the East Village, but couldn't find anything affordable, DNAinfo's Lisha Arino reports today.

“We looked at so many spaces that didn’t work for one reason or another,” said co-owner Omer Shorshi.

Shorshi and his partner, Suzanne Levinson, looked at more than 50 locations, mostly in the East Village, but found that spaces similar to their 500-square-foot former home were at least double the $5,000-a-month rent they paid at their 123 Second Ave. location, he said.

The owners ultimately signed a lease at 128 MacDougal St. near Washington Square Park. The new space will be much bigger at about 800 square feet, and will cost about $9,000 a month in rent, Shorshi said.

The owners said that they hope to be up and running this fall.

H/T EVG reader Pinch!

Out and About in the East Village 2015 recap

We're taking a week off to provide a quick recap… of our subjects to date from 2015. Many thanks to East Village-based photographer James Maher and everyone who has taken part in this series... we'll return next week with Out and About in the East Village. Probably!

Jan. 7 — Zachary Mack

Jan. 14 — Magic Brian

Jan. 21 — Gala Darling

Feb. 4 — Adrianna Grezak

Feb. 11 — Eileen Johnson

Feb. 18 — Sheila Rothenberg Part 1

Feb. 25 — Sheila Rothenberg Part 2

March 4 — Stephen Shanaghan and Arnoldo Caballero Part 1

March 11 — Stephen Shanaghan and Arnoldo Caballero Part 2

March 18 — Regina Bartkoff and Charles Schick Part 1

March 25 — Regina Bartkoff and Charles Schick Part 2

April 8 — Kecia (and Hazel)

April 15 — Diane McLean

April 22 – Mildred Guy

April 29 — Mark Mace

May 6 — Philip Van Aver

May 13 — Rineke

May 20 — Robert Shapiro

May 27 — Alicia Mercado

Updates: A new beginning for Diane McLean and her 3 children

[Photo from April 10 by James Maher]

Diane McLean and her children Rose, James and Annabelle were among the East Village residents who found themselves without a home after the deadly gas explosion on March 26.

McLean, a child psychiatrist at Lincoln Medical Center, had lived at 119 Second Ave. since 1979. (No. 119, 121 and 123 were all destroyed in the aftermath of the explosion.)

We featured her in Out and About in the East Village on April 15.

I’m absolutely trying to take a positive attitude. I believe in the future and I’m a positive person. But that does not mean that we’re OK. People gave me everything I’m wearing besides my shoes and my jacket — the shirt, the pants, the socks. But I feel good about that. I’m walking around and I can say, ‘Oh yeah, Lori and Rachel gave me that,’ and my kids can get up in the morning and say, ‘I’m putting on Ella’s clothes, I’m putting on Zachary’s clothes.’ We’re wearing people’s care and that’s practically helpful, but now we have to get to the next step. I’m really overwhelmed on how we’re going to get there, and that’s what I don’t know.

At the time of the interview, she was looking for a place to live with her children.

This past Friday, the Huffington Post noted that Diane found a new place to live in Bushwick.

A look at the new luxury condos coming soon to East 13th Street

Work is underway at 436 and 442 E. 13th St., where two 6-story luxury developments will rise from the former garages...


[No. 436]


[No. 442]

And yesterday, developers Amirian Group and Bridgeton Holdings — who bought both properties for $9.5 million — posted the renderings for the new condos on Instagram …


[Image via Instagram]

Per the Instagram post:

"Each building has 6 floor-through homes, all with private outdoor space. The penthouses have their own private garages and incredible roof decks. Two and Three bedrooms. Pricing from $2.3M. Penthouses start at $3.4M."

And!

We are unveiling more renderings and floorplans this Thursday from 5 to 8 PM along with @artbattles and the kids of Walk of Art and EBC High School [in Brooklyn], who will be staging a street-art competition to kick-off the projects.

The buildings are dubbed Thirteen East + West, according to New York Yimby.

This will be a busy block here between Avenue A and First Avenue for construction. Across the street, workers continue to prep the former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office for demolition to make way for an 8-story retail-residential building.

Meanwhile, the residents of 444 E. 13th St. sued their landlord last week, accusing him of ongoing threats and harassment.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Tracking the coming changes to East 13th Street between Avenue A and 1st Avenue

Claim: Landlord of 444 E. 13th St. threatened 'to drop dynamite on the building'

On 6th Street, Hudson East fetches $60 million

Hudson East, the 86-unit rental building at 223-237 E. Sixth St. between Second Avenue and Cooper Square, has changed hands for $60 million, The Real Deal reports.

Abro Management, who purchased the building erected in 1996 from the Hudson Companies, plans "a long-term hold," per the article.

Units here range from $2,950 to $6,300. (Twenty percent of the units are also set aside for lower-income residents.)

And there is a lot of East Village history at the site, which dates to the 1920s.

We'll head to this article from the Times in 1997 for more:

Over time, the building was the Loew's Commodore movie palace, a Yiddish theater and a concert hall. In 1968, Bill Graham, the rock music impresario, turned the theater into the Fillmore East, which became a mecca for music fans. Among the acts that played at the Fillmore East before it closed in 1971 were B. B. King, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and the Allman Brothers.

During the 1980's, the building was refurbished as the Saint, which for eight years drew crowds of several thousand gay dancers a night. And earlier this decade, there were plans to turn the empty structure into a six-screen movie theater. But that project went into bankruptcy.

The Hudson Companies bought the property for $1.6 million in 1995.

Said Hudson principal Alan R. Bill in 1997: "We believed the East Village was turning around," resulting in a demand for more rentals.

The four-floor building that houses the Apple Bank on Second Avenue is all that remains of the former theater complex.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Loew's Commodore Theatre

Bank branch becomes bank branch at former site of the Fillmore East

Tomorrow night at Otto's: 'Escape from (New) New York'

Via the EVG inbox…

ALPHA WOMEN attack the East Village on the first Wednesday of each month.

Hosted by Our Lady of Perpetual PMS and CJ BadVato

Spending Summertime in the City like a good working-class Punk? Us too! And our ALPHA WOMEN satirical sense of humor will get you though these gritty city days with a party for the rest of us!

Featuring:

9 pm: Val Kinzler of the Val Kinzler Band. Hilarious and inspired rock anthems you'll be quoting for days: "Keep your baby on a leash and let my doggggg run wild!"

9:30 pm: Thundera — Infectious, all-girl punk trio. Like their influences (The Runaways, Joan Jett, Bikini Kill, Patti Smith, etc.), their sound is raw, powerful and infused with vitality.

10 pm: Baby Machine: Olga & LeAnne summon you into their make believe world of power pop & stellar song writing with just a bass, guitar, & otherworldly vocals! See also: Escape Artist, LeAnne's solo work.

10:30 pm: Four Eyes NYC: 3/4 members are serious alpha/witchy women, on a mission to bring you punk rock and good times galore!

In the front: classic punk, 90's, grrrl power anthems and queercore played proudly all night … bar-wide dance party welcomed!

Suggested dress: Your festive, Anarchic or Anachronistic best.

Shop: art & band merch @ our Lil Vendor Corner. Artwork by special guest artist HAUSRIOT

Find it all at Otto's Shrunken Head, 538 E. 14th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. No cover.

And here are more details via the Facebook event page.

Bad break for a linden tree in Tompkins Square Park

Crews were out inspecting this linden tree in Tompkins Square Park this morning...



Given where the linden split after this round of storms, workers will likely have to remove the tree located near Temperance Fountain...





Photos by Derek Berg

Presenting the Shops on East Fifth Street

Last July, the owners of three businesses had to vacate their storefronts due to a structural issue in the building at 300 E. Fifth St. just east of Second Avenue.

S & P Liquor & Wine eventually moved to Second Avenue after one false start reopening in the storefront … while Jamie the check-cashing guy, whose family owned the business for 68 years, had to shut down at the end of 2014 as repairs dragged on. He had been operating for five months from a secure van outside his shop. (Not sure what happened with the third place — Today's Cut hair salon. Updated: They moved to East Seventh Street just west of Avenue A.)

Now that the old businesses have moved on, the landlord has refurbished and rebranded the space, which is now going by The Shops of East Fifth Street, per the for lease sign that recently arrived…



As you can see, the space is divisible … though no food. We didn't spot the listing just yet online.



Thanks to EVG reader Steven for the photos!

Previously on EV Grieve:
3 small businesses temporarily closed due to structural issues at 300 E. 5th St.

Mixologoist Albert Trummer looking to bring a cocktail bar to Avenue C

[Image via Buchbinder & Warren]

Albert Trummer, perhaps best known for his flaming concoctions at the Prohibition-era styled Apothéke in Chinatown, has designs for a new cocktail bar at 14 Avenue C, home of the former Adinah's Farm corner market.

Trummer's name is on the 30-day notice submitted to CB3 ahead of Monday night's SLA committee meeting.



FDNY investigators reportedly arrested Trummer in 2010 after setting alcohol aflame on the bartop at Apothéke on Doyers Street. He was charged with reckless endangerment and criminal nuisance, both misdemeanors. After the arrest, he told the Times: "My intention was not to hurt anybody. I'm an artist. I'm a mixologoist. I'm a cook. But I'm not a pyrotechnic maniac."

He vowed to fight the charges, but, in September 2011, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and received $120 in fines and two days community service.

Most recently Trummer has been opening bars in South Beach.

The questionnaire with more specifics about the new bar here at Avenue C and East Second Street has yet to arrive on the CB3 website.

Updated 1:24 p.m.

The questionnaire (PDF) is now online. The proposed hours are 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Saturday. The configuration shows 10 tables seating 45 people, and one bar for 15 people. The unnamed bar plans to serve a tapas-style menu.

Adinah's Farm closed for good last June. The asking rent for the space had been $17,500.

The SLA committee meeting is Monday night at 6:30 in the CB3 office, 59 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

Actual demolition work happening at Ben Shaoul's illegal East 5th Street penthouse

Last week an EVG reader noted the arrival of some supplies at 515 E. Fifth St., where landlord Ben Shaoul is under orders to remove the illegal penthouse here.

Per the reader: "Getting fresh sheetrock delivered isn't what happens when you are removing an illegal addition."

Since then, several 515 Penthouse Removal Watchers have observed workers actually removing materials from the top floor here between Avenue A and Avenue B and discarding them in the dumpster outside No. 515.



And a member of the 515 tenants association said that this was a shipment of plywood to cover the holes between the 6th and 7th floors made by the demolition.

As you may have memorized by now: The Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) ruled in 2008 that Shaoul needed to remove the 6th and 7th floors here between Avenue A and Avenue B. However, his attorneys had requested that the city grant a zoning variance to "permit the constructed enlargement, minus the penthouse, to remain" here.

A rep for the tenants association told us that the BSA is giving Shaoul until the end of July to provide proof that the penthouse has been demolished … then the BSA will reopen hearings on the variances that Shaoul and Co. are requesting.

515 Penthouse Removal Watchers figure workers will just hollow out the penthouse and leave the bulkheads the way they did on the Shaoul-owned 514-516 Sixth St., where the space is now apparently making for a cool party gazebo.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Sidewalk bridge arrives at 515 E. 5th St., site of Ben Shaoul's illegal penthouse conversion

Today in photos of discarded Bill Murray throw pillows

[Photo by Mike Wolf]

Spotted in the trash on East 10th Street and Avenue B… a $20 value!

Tompkins Square Pool nearly ready to open

Just another few feet to go.

Park photo today via Bobby Williams.

As for the actual Tompkins Square Pool, it re-opens for the season on June 27.

Rumors: Red Square has been sold

A tipster tells us the following:

Red Square has been sold! From what I hear, the ink isn't quite dry. But I think the price was $135 million. The more frightening part of this rumor is that the storefronts may not be long for the world — the new owner will be seeking to build higher on that site.

This is the second time in recent weeks that we heard that the residential complex at 250 E. Houston St. between Avenue A and Avenue B has been sold. (Our other tipster's source was a Red Square employee.)

To date, there's nothing in public records documenting a sale of the 12-floor building that includes 130 rental units and 23,000 square feet of retail space.

Adding to the speculation: None of the empty storefronts along the Shoppes at Red Square are listed for rent. Amona Deli & Grocery closed back in February. The space has sat empty since then. Last week, its next-door neighbor moved away...



One of the other long-empty retail spaces has served as a Halloween pop-up shop in recent years.

The building, the creation of Michael Rosen, opened in June 1989. Here's more from a Daily News article from September 2008:

Red Square occupies land that served as an automobile service station for more than 25 years. Rosen's wife's family bought the property in the 1960s, and, he points out, no homes were destroyed and no businesses were displaced.

Red Square was designed by graphic artist legend Tibor Kalman, a Hungarian immigrant. Its quirky feel has come to symbolize the avant-garde, rebellious East Village spirit.

Rosen has actually apologized for Red Square. (We heard him do so at a Community Board 3 meeting several years ago.) Last we read, he was a nonvoting shareholder in the building and without any involvement in the day-to-day operations.

And it should be noted that there was speculation of an addition atop the existing stores as for back as the summer of 2008, according to this article in the Voice.

In announcing the opening of Red Square in the spring of 1989, the Times reported that the building "includes studios that will rent for $975 a month, one-bedroom apartments for $1,350 and two-bedroom units at $1,900. Mr. Rosen shrugged off the possibility that the rents might be a bit steep for the proletariat, forecasting that interest will stem from young professionals and college students who will share apartments."

Avenue A storefront shuffle

Back in February, Galleria J. Antonio announced that the crafts and custom jewelry shop would be closing in the months ahead at 47 Avenue A.

As we understood it, the proprietors were retiring from the business that has been here between East Third Street and East Fourth Street since 2000. (The shop opened on Madison and 68th Street in 1970 before relocating to Christopher Street … before the move to A some years later.)

However, it turned out to be a short-lived retirement. Galleria J. Antonio is downsizing and moving into the former eyeglass shop a storefront away.



Galleria J. Antonio curator Jesse Gee told us this in a Facebook message: "The eyeglass store will be my retirement store. Isn't that a stitch? I can't stop working because I love what I do and STILL NEED A JOB, but — I must slow down and work fewer days and hours."

Meanwhile, from the rumor mill comes word that the Essex Card Shop at 39 Avenue A is going to open a second outpost in the former Galleria J. Antonio space … the person who passed along the tip used the words "Avenue A department store." We shall see.

The B Bar's Urban Etiquette Sign about their neighbor's trash

A rather amused EVG reader on the Bowery points us to this sign on the building next door to the B Bar.

To the tenants of this building
Please only put your garbage out on the days it is scheduled to be picked up. Do not put your garbage out over the weekend … The garbage on the street is unsightly and unsanitary.

Stern, but a reasonable enough request! Maybe!

The reader then pointed out the B Bar's own unsightly mound of garbage bags yesterday morning near East Fourth Street waiting for private pickup…

New Steve Croman warning flyer makes the scene

Last week, an EVG reader noted a lone flyer on East 11th Street at Avenue B warning potential residents of living in a property owned by Steve Croman, aka 9300 Realty, named one of the top-10 worst landlords in NYC last year by The Village Voice.

This past weekend another flyer arrived … affixed to a city trash can on Second Avenue and East Fifth Street…



In this flyer, Croman is pictured with his wife Harriet … and the flyer's creator points out that Croman "is now the subject of an investigation into potentially illegal tactics used to force rent-stabilized tenants out of their apartments, the Daily News has learned."

That Daily News piece is from last July.

Photos by Derek Berg

May 31

EVG reader Riian Kant-McCormick sends along the photo with the following:

How can it be? I have no proof of date beyond the rain, but behold a very merry smelling tree at 13th and Avenue A.

And to all a good night.

Perhaps the storm below it here from January?

Shelter from the storm

Second Avenue and East Fourth Street via Derek Berg...

Meanwhile, here's a photo of a unicorn playing an accordian on Rivington Street this evening

Photo by @WaggytailRescue via Slum Goddess…