Reader report: Three apartment buildings sold on East Third Street

There's talk on East Third Street that Abart Holdings LLC has sold (or is selling) the buildings at 50, 54 and 58 on this block between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Per a tipster: "Word on the street is people who have leases ending this summer have received letters informing them of the sale and that the new owner will NOT be renewing leases. I don't doubt the validity of the letters, although I would love to..."

The tipster says that the letters are from Abart Holdings. The letters do not name the new owner.

Have any tips about the situation here? Please send them our way via the EV Grieve email ...

Per the tipster, who lives in one of the buildings: "Better not be another set of fucking personal mansions..."

Might make for a mansion row to go with 47 E. Third St. across the way.

On second thought, there is a garage at the Economakis Dream Mansion

Just on Tuesday, we had given up on the gossip about a new garage at the former 15-unit tenement on East Third Street. However! A well-placed tipster says it's all true, possibly.

First, some paperwork from the DOB to install a new curb cut. (Notice it is in audit to revoke — which means??)

Per the tipster:

"The garage is already built. I haven't seen behind the plywood since the structural work was done so I don't know what it looks like exactly. There is a vandal and graffitti resistant (maybe tactical nuclear-strike proof) garage door which does not roll on a track like a typical door, but rises in one piece vertically through the floor above and stops behind the windows of the floor above."

Two other items of business:

1) Per a commenter: "If you look on the DOB website at job #110412232, Schedule A, it has a proposed 'community facility' where the storefronts are. Isn't this supposed to be a single family mansion?"

2) Predicting a move-in date...

Previously on EV Grieve:
And Economakis gets the whole building for his dream mansion

The 47 E. 3rd St. protest in video

At the 47 E. 3rd St. protest

Work more prominent now at the Economakis Mansion

It just occurred to us that we haven't checked in on the Economakis Dream Mansion on East Third Street since last May... On Jan. 5, Curbed made a return visit, noting a new cornice and new windows ... Still, hasn't really seemed like much is happening... until now... Workers recently put up construction netting and a sidewalk shed...

A look at the DOB permits issued a few weeks back don't reveal too much... However, there is the permit approved on Jan. 11 ... according to the DOB, workers will be installing a new curb cut. The DOB originally disapproved the curb cut, as Curbed noted on Jan. 5 ... Now it seems to be OK. As Curbed noted: "Maybe the old storefronts are being eyed for a private garage?"

Previously on EV Grieve:
And Economakis gets the whole building for his dream mansion

The 47 E. 3rd St. protest in video

At the 47 E. 3rd St. protest

Conspiracies: Where are all the fliers?

What's doing at the Economakis dream mansion on East Third Street?

Scoopy has an update this week in The Villager.



Take it away Scoopy....:

Lower East Side activist Susan Howard told us that a friend of hers who lives near 47 E. Third St. — the East Village "mass eviction" building — hasn't seen evidence of any work going on there for a while and thinks construction has ground to a halt.

Howard urged us to call Alistair and find out what’s up. "Work is progressing..." He said he doesn’t have a specific completion date for when the building will be ready for them to live in as their luxurious, single-family mansion. He said he and his family recently moved out of the place, and are temporarily living in Brooklyn until the job is done. "It came time we had to move out of there," he said of 47 E. Third St. "Our bedroom's gone — it was relocated to a different spot. The steps are being relocated. It was much simpler to just open everything up and build everything at once." Economakis said all the building’s windows are boarded up on the inside, not because no work is going on, but to protect the windows while work is going on.

[EV Grieve file photo]

Previously on EV Grieve:
And Economakis gets the whole building for his dream mansion

The 47 E. 3rd St. protest in video

At the 47 E. 3rd St. protest

Conspiracies: Where are all the fliers?

Continuing to speculate about what 10-room, $15-million home is for sale on East Third Street

Yesterday, we started speculating about what 10-bedroom house on East Third Street might be for sale for nearly $16 million. Mostly because we're curious about what nearly $16 million gets you these days in the neighborhood. Plus, well, there's more to it than that. According to the frustratingly detail-free listing, the deal includes the adjoining building.



Many of us immediately thought of the Economakis dream mansion at 47 E. Third St. The square footage is nearly identical, for one thing. And there has long been speculation that, after successfully evicting the building's tenants, the owners would flip the property immediately to make big money. The Economakis family, for their part, have insisted they'll live there — maybe forever, as they told Scoopy.

Anyway, EV Grieve reader Marjorie pointed out that "the Trulia listing says it's in zip code 10009. That means this mystery place is east of first avenue; the Economakis place is between 1st and 2nd aves — zip code 10003."

However, Chris Flash at The Shadow has been closely following the story. He wrote, "We've been keeping tabs on the real estate marketeers on the LES for decades now (they still send us their 'set-up sheets') and know from experience that they often get little details like zip codes and other info wrong." He states, "We're pretty sure that the Ardor listing is for the Economakis mansion at 47 East Third that they successfully vacated as of August 31."

Meanwhile, EV Grieve reader WB figured these fine homes just east of Third Street were likely candidates...



Good guess, but the listing is with Ardor, and the apartments here are exclusively with CitiHabitats.

Which reminds me I had these photos from the summer...



I liked the sign: "Too many upgrades to mention."



In an e-mail, an EV Grieve reader said that he/she took another look at the Ardor listing, and noticed that you could "map" the address. So they did.



As the readers says, if the map is to be believed, the property lies between Avenue C and Avenue D on the north side of the street...which led them to this possibility...



And the building on the left only has one buzzer, according to the reader, who knows this for some reason...

[Ominously] To be continued....

Economakis mansion renovation shuts down Third Street today

No traffic today on Third Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue. At 47 E. Third St., the Economakis family is creating their 11,600-square-foot dream home from the former 15-unit tenement.





One neighbor watching the crane at work wondered how many more Saturdays would be affected by the construction.

Previously.

Inside the Economakis dream mansion on East Third Street

In this week's issue of The Villager, Scoopy gets a tour of the renovations at 47 E. Third St., where the Economakis family is making their 11,600-square-foot dream home from the former 15-unit tenement.

To some excerpts!

Except for the areas that the family is still using, the place has been completely gutted in the past month — with just the floors, the stairs and the building’s brick shell remaining. The old roof is still on, but will be replaced soon. With peppy enthusiasm, Catherine Economakis led the tour, first showing us her “dream kitchen” she had installed on the second floor, complete with a fully stocked stainless steel refrigerator, adjacent to their combination living room/dining room. Moving into the freshly gutted areas — where nothing at all is left of the former apartments — Catherine showed where they will blast through a wall to create a new doorway so that she won’t have to make the “50-yard dash,” as she put it, between the kitchen and the new dining room proper — that is, once they build the dining room in the rear of the building where one of the tenant’s apartments used to be.

And!

The Economakises also proudly note they have even restored the building’s cornice, which had been removed, and have cleaned and pointed the old tenement’s front brickwork. Catherine stated they intend to live there their whole lives. Alistair, saying one can never know what the future holds, assured they’ll stay there at least 10 years — if not 20 years, and yes, maybe even forever.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Alistair Economakis is suing his cousin Evel for libel

And Economakis gets the whole building for his dream mansion

The 47 E. 3rd St. protest in video

At the 47 E. 3rd St. protest

Conspiracies: Where are all the fliers?

Dumpster marks the beginning of the end of 47 E. Third St.

As The Villager reported in its current issue, on Aug. 27, tenants moved out of 47 E. Third Street -- home of the infamous, longstanding battle with building owner Alistair Economakis.

According to the paper, Economakis may have also moved out -- at least temporarily. Pr maybe not.

And now a dumpster is in place in front of the building for collecting the remains of the renovation that will turn the tenement into the family's Mansion.




And check back with the paper later this week: There will be more of an interview with Alistair Economakis -- his longest to date with the media.



Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Alistair Economakis is suing his cousin Evel for libel

And Economakis gets the whole building for his dream mansion

The 47 E. 3rd St. protest in video

At the 47 E. 3rd St. protest

Conspiracies: Where are all the fliers?

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

M8 rally tomorrow (Colonnade Row)

Last chance weekend at Etherea (Stupefaction)

Tenants at 47 E. Third St. have until Aug. 31 to vacate (The Villager)

The cons are on (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Butts, billboards and Beyond (BoweryBoogie)

50/50 for Ruby's reopening (Grub Street)

Happy (sort of belated) birthday Cheetah Chrome (Punk Turns 30)

Report: Alistair Economakis is suing his cousin Evel for libel

As you may recall, a sharply worded letter made the rounds this past summer from one Evel Economakis, a high-school history teacher in Athens, Greece, who is also reportedly the cousin of landlord Alistair Economakis, owner of 47 E. Third St. (In November, Alistair Economakis was successful in buying out the remaining tenants at 47 E. Third St. He is reportedly making the tenement building a home for his family.)

According to an article in The Indypendent, Alistair Economakis is suing his cousin for libel. As The Indypendent reported:

In a letter sent out in September, Evel Economakis wrote that the libel suit is an attempt “to send me to jail and destroy me financially (which is not a hard thing to do, as I make under $12,000 a year).” According to Third Street tenants, Greek law allows plaintiffs to sue for libel even if the accusations are true.

So in that letter, Evel apologized for “the mistake of calling my cousin Alistair a ’spoiled rich brat.’

“Alistair grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth, was surrounded by maids and other servants, had everything handed to him, played on his father’s yacht, and rode his father’s horses on their estate in England. More, on at least two occasions I personally witnessed how rudely he addressed poor elderly people in Greece. But none of this, of course, constitutes evidence that he is a ’spoiled rich brat.’ Sorry, Alistair, I shouldn’t have said that about you.”

“If I had the chance to rewrite the letter, I wouldn’t use characterizations and other adjectives,” he concluded. “But I have always believed -- and will always believe -- that a parasite is a person who takes and never gives back. A parasite buys and sells, producing nothing. Worse still, he does so at the expense of others.”

Meanwhile, the article in The Indypendent contains many juicy details about the battle for 47 E. Third St.

Previous coverage of 47 E. Third St. on EV Grieve.

And Economakis gets the whole building for his dream mansion

The New York Post reports:

Eight holdout tenants who fought for five years to keep their millionaire landlord from turning their Lower East Side tenement into a mansion for himself agreed to be bought out yesterday.

The last rent-stabilized tenants of 47 E. Third St. said they gave in because they weren't confident they would beat real-estate baron Alistair Economakis in the Manhattan Supreme Court trial scheduled to begin yesterday.

Economakis, the son of a Greek shipping magnate, bought the six-story building for $900,000 in 2003 and said he needed it as a home for himself, his wife and two children.

He reached deals with seven of the 15 tenants but the others fought until yesterday.

The tenants will each receive $75,000 under the settlement, except for one elderly resident, who will get $175,000.

Here is the Web site for Alistair Economakis -- The Other Side of the Story: 47 East 3rd Street

Previously on EV Grieve.