LES Convenience is coming soon for your convenience on Avenue A

The proliferation of smoke-snack shops continues. 

Signage for LES Convenience arrived late last week at 105 Avenue A between Sixth Street and Seventh Street. The signage promises an ATM, snacks, drinks, hookah and more. 

No. 105 was previously home to Hub Thai, which moved to 50 Avenue A this past March. 

LES Convenience will mark the third deli-snack-smoke establishment to open on the west side of Avenue A within three blocks. A more-upscale looking deli-market is coming to 93 Avenue A ... while a mystery deli-market is said to be in the works for 123 Avenue A. 

Meanwhile, I would have been happy if East Village Farms had never vanished at 100 Avenue A.

Oh, 123 Third Ave. does have a Web site...

Oh, lordy somehow I missed this... I only noticed the phone number... so when we can finally read about the faboo amenities coming to this skyscraping condo at 14th Street and Third Avenue...And what's on the site?



Not much yet!



So the sales office opens later this fall... and you can register now for the "priority list." Priority over what unit you want overlooking an NYU dorm?

123 Third Ave. shows its yellow belly

Still no sign of that "coming soon" sales office, though... 14th Street and Third Avenue.

123 Third Ave. is already cracking up

Here at the home of million-dollar condos at 14th Street and Third Avenue. There's a nice crack along this section on 14th Street where the Capital One Bank will reside one day...

Stopping work at 123 Third Ave.

This past weekend, I noticed a "stop work order" had been slapped on the new bank/condo tower now under way on the southeast corner of 14th Street and Third Avenue.

Your chance to see inside a historic townhouse on East 10th Street tonight (complimentary wine alert!)

The beautiful homes at 123-125 E. 10th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue have been on the market for more than three years... oh those handsome single-family Anglo-Italianate townhouses!

Here's the listing at Rubicon:

If you were to travel back in time to New York City in 1854, it would appear virtually unrecognizable. Yet, arrive at Renwick Triangle, formed by the intersection of Stuyvesant Street and East 10th Street, and it would seem as if time stood still. Of all James Renwick's masterpieces in this corridor, one stands out as more imposing and grander than the rest. Architecturally paired, 123 East 10th Street and 125 East 10th Street are now offered for sale together. At 28 feet wide, of grand scale and proportions, with approximately 8,400 square feet of interior space, and a large, terraced rear garden, this presents a new owner with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a modern home at an iconic address. Behind an exceptionally handsome facade, 5 stories tall including an English basement, this magnificent townhouse has 18 fireplaces, original moldings, detailed mantelpieces and an ornamental cast-iron "Juliet" balcony which runs the width of the building. Since this townhouse is located in the middle of the St. Mark's Historic District, the extraordinary morning light and tranquility will be forever preserved. Given the scope of this offering, Rubicon Property has created a prospectus on this residence, its history and its future, which can be furnished on request by qualified buyers or brokers

Oh, the point of bringing this up now? There is an open house at 123 E. 10th St. tonight from 6-9. With complimentary wine! (Woo!) Says a Rubicon rep: "This is a magnificent opportunity to look into a piece of history." And Rubicon donates a $1 to charity: water for every person who signs in for the open house.

And the combo houses are yours for $12.95 million.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

Will New Yorkers stand in line to get Jonathan Franzen's new novel? (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

A Photographic History of 'Hipsters' on MTV (Runnin' Scared)

123 Third Avenue hits the market! (Curbed)

Crazy photo shoot for the Crazy Landlord wall (GammaBlog)

Love for the Ukrainian National Home (Eater)

Keith Haring for David Dinkins in 1989 (Ephemeral New York)

Extraneous Twist tags removed (BoweryBoogie)

And a photo shoot of some sort late yesterday afternoon along Avenue B... hmm, white socks, brown loafer-looking things... white T-shirt, a waistcoat... maybe a catalog for German tourists?

The former Mystery Lot sinks ... and rises

On Friday, we got a ground-level glimpse into the former Mystery Lot... Now EVG reader Katja provides an update on the action from above...

Also! It is rising! Here's the first sign of the new development above ground, wedged in the space between 123 Third Avenue and Chickpea...

As we noted in May — there is a retail listing...

It's nearly show time as NYC theaters prep for reopening

After being dark for nearly a year, movie theaters in NYC are permitted to reopen tomorrow at 25-percent capacity. 

However, don't expect to see all of the local movie houses up and running right away. 

Here's what to expect, starting with the Village East Cinema on Second Avenue at 12th Street (marquee photo above by Doug) ... which will have a new name...

We’re reopening Friday March 5, and we are excited to welcome @CityCinemasNYC to the Angelika Film Center family, as Village East by Angelika and Cinema 123 by Angelika!
For more information, visit us at https://t.co/K3mu1MJiw8.
See you at the movies! pic.twitter.com/T1W311Xu6p

— Angelika Film Center (@AngelikaFilmNY) February 26, 2021

Before the pandemic, the Village East Cinema showed movies that originally opened at the Angelika Film Center. Plus, the Village East Cinema is owned by City Cinemas, a branch of Reading International. The Angelika is also under the Reading International umbrella. So they're keeping it all in the Reading family.

Find the cinema's website here. 

Elsewhere in the downtown film community... (and masks are required to be theaters)...

• Angelika Film Center., Houston Street. Opening on March 5. Website here. 

• Anthology Film Archives, Second Avenue at Second Street. No reopening date. Will continue with virtual cinema. 

• Cinema Village, 12th Street. The small theater is hoping to reopen around April 1, per the Post. 

• Film Forum, East Houston. Opening on April 2.

• IFC Center. Opening on March 5. And per IndieWire: "Mandatory mask-wearing at all times, no concession sales, and no eating and drinking allowed in theaters." 

• Loews Village 7, Third Avenue at 11th Street. Opening March 5. Website here. 

• Metrograph, Ludlow Street. No reopening date yet. Will continue with virtual programming. 

• Regal Cinemas, Union Square and Essex Crossing. No return date just yet. 

• Quad Cinema, 13th Street. Opening on March 5. (Updated)

2nd Avenue gas explosion defendants due back in court on Monday

There's another court date for Maria Hrynenko and three other people accused of manslaughter for the deadly explosion that destroyed three buildings at 119-123 Second Ave. in March 2015.

According to public records, Hrynenko, who owned No. 119 and 121, and the other three defendants will appear in court on Monday.



Records show that Hrynenko and the other accused have appeared in New York County Criminal Court 19 times since February 2016... and the outcome was the same — "adjourned/bail continued" — since their initial appearance...



To recap...In February 2016, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance's office charged Hrynenko and four others with manslaughter and negligent homicide for their alleged role in the blast that killed two men and injured more than a dozen other people in the buildings between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.

Vance's office charged Maria and her son, Michael Jr., along with contractor Dilber Kukic and plumber Jerry Ioannidis with manslaughter in the second degree, criminally negligent homicide and assault in the second degree, among other charges. (The final defendant, licensed plumber Andrew Trombettas, was charged with offering a false instrument​,​ for allegedly lending his name and license number to paperwork.)

The five were accused of installing an illegal gas system, which they hid from inspectors, at No. 119 and 121. All five pleaded not guilty.

An obituary posted last August at the Pizzi Funeral Home website stated that Michael Jr. died on Aug. 25, 2017. He was 31. A cause of death was not disclosed for Hrynenko, who was also called Mischou.

In early August, the development team behind the proposed 7-story condoplex at part of the explosion site (the former No. 119 and 121) received approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission for a high-end residential building with ground-floor retail.

The new building will include a commemorative plaque that honors Moises Locón and Nicholas Figueroa, the men who died that March 26, 2015.

Shaky Cohen's Nexus Building Development Group paid $9.15 million for the empty lots.

The third site, which was not owned by Hrynenko, sold for $6 million in 2016, but there aren't any development plans for that property, 123 Second Ave., yet.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Exclusive: 2nd Avenue explosion sites have a new owner

Dedicating Moises Locón Way and Nicholas Figueroa Way on 2nd Avenue at 7th Street

Soil testing underway at the 2nd Avenue explosion site

Someone finally bought this home after four years on the market

That beautiful home (a single-family Anglo-Italianate townhouse!) over at 123 E. 10th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue has been on the market for more than four years...

But!

Crain's reports today that an unnamed buyer finally, um, bought the five-story, 4,200-square-foot home close to its asking price of $6.25 million.

Its neighbor at 125 is also on the market. A buyer could have, er, bought both and combined them for $12.5 million ... or not. Jason Haber, co-founder of Rubicon Property, the broker since February 2011, believes the purchaser will purchase 125 in the end as well.

The two began life on the market at $19.5 million.

And a brief history of the address via Streeteasy...



Previously.

Your chance to buy two historic townhouses on East 10th Street -- or create Central Village's first single-family mansion!

It's easy to like the tree-lined 10th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue -- right in the heart of the St. Mark's Historic District... oh those handsome single-family Anglo-Italianate townhouses!

And now not one but TWO of them can be yours...



...for $12.9 million... both 123 E. 10th St. and 125 E. 10th St. are on the market. (The owner had been selling them. Now Leslie Garfield & Co. is doing the honors... A little description...

Located on a serene tree-lined residential street in the heart of the St. Mark’s Historic District, this pair of exceptionally handsome single-family Anglo-Italianate townhouses [Oh, there's where I picked up that term earlier!], rises four stories above rusticated stone “English basements.” The front parlor windows extend to the floor and open onto an ornamental cast-iron balcony that runs across the twin buildings’ brick façade, unchanged since built in 1854. Pass through the round-arch entryway of each house and you are in a world apart. Each is light and airy with beautifully detailed moldings and mantelpieces; there is a total of eighteen (18) fireplaces and in the rear, a shared idyllic garden. Bring your architect to create the Central Village’s first 28’-wide single-family mansion. Also available individually for $6,475,000 each.

Historic carriage house on East 13th Street hits the market for $18 million

First, let's check out the Cushman & Wakefield listing for the building at 126-128 E. 13th St between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue:

A NNN leased three level, Beaux-Arts style, loft building located on the south side of East 13th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues. The space is leased to Peridance, a dance studio, until March 2028 with a 5 year option. The rent will increase to $623,673 per year in March 2016 and then have 3% annual increases thereafter. The tenant is responsible for all operating expenses and repairs for the property. The rent of only $40/RSF, is half of market value providing tremendous future upside. The lease is guaranteed by Capezio Ballet Makers Inc.

The asking price is $18 million. In addition, the same seller is offering the adjacent property to the south, 123 E. 12th St., for $8.5 million.

As for 126-128 E. 13th St., this is believed to be the last surviving horse and carriage auction mart building in New York City, according to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), who helped keep the structure from becoming a seven-story condo back in 2006.

In addition, the building served as the studio of artist Frank Stella, and during World War II was an assembly-line training center for women. (Read more about the building's history at the GVSHP website here.)

In May 2012, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to landmark the building. Several months before this vote, a State Supreme Court judge ordered the sale of the property after the condo developers lost a foreclosure suit, according to The Real Deal.

Image via Cushman & Wakefield

The top-10 EV Grieve posts that NO ONE read in 2011

Here's your second chance, people!

• If you stand just right on 14th Street and First Avenue, then it kind of looks as if the shadow is going up Leonardo DiCaprio's nose (Nov. 11)

• Today in sidewalk sales on St. Mark's Place (July 10)

• And the DEP catch of the day is... (June 18)

• THIS is why we need a second Chase branch on Second Avenue and 10th Street (June 24)

• Exclusive first look inside the new Capital One bank branch at 123 Third Ave. (Sept. 26)

• Today in interesting-looking boiler-service trucks on Seventh Street (Sept. 24)

• Today in dog poop etiquette signs (Sept. 12)

• You may now sign up for the TV/VCR (Aug. 5)

• An espresso to go? (May 14)

• Noted (Feb. 16)

Mystery Lot ready for retail

As you probably know, the Mystery Lot here off East 14th Street east of Third Avenue will become an 82-unit, eight-story development some day. The work permits, which are still pending city approval, say that the space will include 86,409 square feet for residential and 5,275 square feet for retail.

And now, the "retail opportunity" sign has arrived ...

Not a whole lot of info via the official retail listing...

However, there will be room for retail in two storefronts, which includes the current empty slot between Chickpea and the 123 condo...

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Mystery Lot likely facing a luxurious end