The last days of the Mystery Lot

Oh, lordy, that headline is a little dramatic.

Still, the Mystery Lot here between 14th Street and 13th Street east of Third Avenue won't be with us for too much longer... As you know, the space 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. (According to the DOB, inspectors disapproved the plans again on Tuesday.)

Anyway, all this will soon be as lifeless as any other generic apartment housing complex in, say, Murray Hill... the rocks, weeds and graffiti will give way to glassy luxury.

Before it's all a cinderblock prison with $3,800 studios, we're taking photos whenever we can... like these three shots from the past week...







And we'd like you to be part of this too... If you see something interesting along here, then please take a photo and send it our way... when the trucks, dumpsters and bendy things arrive in good time, we'll have a post sharing everyone's Mystery Lot shots... You can send them via the EV Grieve email

P.S.

A few examples of Mystery Lot shots from the EVG Archives ...

[Via James and Karla Murray]

The Big Dig begins at The Mystery Lot

Construction equipment arrived at the Mystery Lot back on July 23... and crews this morning are now digging in, as you can see from this photo via EVG reader Katja...

Next stop, the Lowline!

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

The last days of the Mystery Lot

Laying some bricks at the Jefferson

Over in the North West East Village, workers have just started laying the bricks on the Jefferson, the new condo building at 211 E. 13th St. (AKA the former Mystery Lot). Looks like this now...



...and some day soon...



Previously on EV Grieve:
The last days of the Mystery Lot

Before it was the Mystery Lot

The Mystery Lot developers using famous dead comedians to sell condos at The Jefferson

The Jefferson reveals what '21st Century living in the heart of Olde New York' costs

Mystery Lot replacement starting to show itself on East 13th Street

While standing on East 14th Street near Third Avenue... you can see the noticeable progress of the new eight-story, 83-unit luxury condo building.

Not so much on East 13th Street though... until now... As you can just make out a few things starting to rise above the plywood...

Meanwhile, for a time-lapse of sorts aerial view... courtesy of EVG reader Katja...

And, of course, how it will look one day on East 13th Street...

[Via Curbed]

Previously on EV Grieve:
City approves new building for Mystery Lot

The Mystery Lot likely facing a luxurious end

The last days of the Mystery Lot

Drilling resumes at the Mystery Lot

Back in August, drillers were drilling away at the Mystery Lot (link here) ...

Today, the drillers are resuming the drilling here off 14th Street and Third Avenue!

[Courtesy of @salim]

What horrible fate awaits this long-empty lot? It very well may be Balazsed. In October, The Real Deal reported that developer Charles Blaichman paid $33.2 million for the site. As Curbed noted at the time, Blaichman was a partner with Jay-Z and Andre Balazs on the hotel that never happened on West 14th Street; and as a partner with Balazs on a doomed project on West 21st Street.

Can we expect the Standard East Union Square one day?

And another hotel? Why, there isn't a new hotel within a block of here!

[The incoming Hyatt Union Square on 14th Street and Fourth Avenue, photographed Sunday]

Previously on EV Grieve:
An appreciation: That empty lot on 13th Street

Another view of the Mystery Lot

Is this the beginning of the end for the Mystery Lot?

An alarmed EV Grieve reader/Mystery Lot aficionado has noted the arrival of workers testing soil samples to monitor the water level...

Or else someone stole this truck and simply tossed it over the fence? Probably not. In any event, such exploratory drilling is required prior to the start of any construction project. The lot has sat vacant since workers demolished the shell of the old Jefferson Theater in 1999.

Builtgross Associates, a subsidiary of Milstein Properties, owns the property. Anthony Bergamo, vice chairman of executive planning for Milstein Properties, told the Local East Village back in March that they didn't expect anything to happen at this site in the near future.

Previously on EV Grieve:
An appreciation: That empty lot on 13th Street

Another view of the Mystery Lot

Mystery lot singing the blues?

All sorts of new developments here in the vacant lot (or mystery lot, as Curbed calls this space) between 14th Street and 13th Street east of Third Avenue... Aside from some colorful new tags, there's a mysterious blue tarp hanging on the 14th Street fence...





Your guesses are welcome as to what the blue tarp is for...

Previously on EV Grieve:
An appreciation: That empty lot on 13th Street

Another view of the Mystery Lot

Mowing the Mystery Lot

I can't recall having ever seen workers actually working inside the beloved Mystery Lot here on 13th Street... I always figured someone quickly -- and magically! -- cut back the weeds around 5:40 a.m. on a Sunday... And here we are in broad daylight... Anyway, I'm not sure how these fellows got inside...the main gate appeared to be locked from the outside. More mystery!



I was yelling at them to get their attention... I wanted to go inside (legally!). But, for some reason, they didn't hear me...



Meanwhile! Someone tagged the back of the billboard thing here...



When will someone hit the front?



P.S.
The blue tarp was back up the other day...




Previously on EV Grieve:
An appreciation: That empty lot on 13th Street

Another view of the Mystery Lot

Mystery Lot weeds whacked; fresh garbage dumped in its place

Noticeable changes at EV Grieve favorite The Mystery Lot on 13th Street near Third Avenue. First, someone whacked the weeds....



...deposited some garbage and shrubbery...



...and fed the pigeons...



Previously on EV Grieve:
An appreciation: That empty lot of 13th Street

Another view of the Mystery Lot

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

Richard Hell's New York (Mystery Lot shout-out!)

Richard Hell continues to do some press in advance of the release of his memoir, "I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp," on Tuesday.

Today, the Post features the longtime East Village resident in its weekly My New York feature... You can read it here.

And he was a Mystery Lot fan!

10. Vacant lot, north side of 13th Street, between Second and Third avenues (now a construction site)

“Whenever I would have to walk across town, I’d try to wrap myself down 13th Street. The lot was all overgrown. And when you were walking down 13th, the buildings that were still standing on 14th Street gave it this kind of broken-toothy kind of edge to it. A friend of mine wanted to make a movie with me — and my first idea was to do something in that lot. I put on a bunch of wounded-person makeup and staggered out from behind one of the 14th Street buildings. I have the footage, somewhere.”

Aside from the interviews that we've already mentioned (The New York Times last Sunday, the Observer), there have also been Hell Q-and-As in New York magazine... Esquire ... Spin has some book excerpts here.

Previously.

[Updated] False alarm at the Mystery Lot

An EV Grieve reader and fellow Mystery Lot aficionado sent along this e-mail earlier today:

There's something going on there this morning. Looks like some wooden platforms have created a path from the base of the large building under construction on the corner of 14th and 3rd. And some dirty metal things (scaffolding parts?) are being placed on them. I hope this leads to some sort of haunted house installation. Likely not.

Then! Before EV Grieve could scramble onto the scene for a photo... the reader wrote back:

Well...it's gone now.

(The platform, not the Mystery Lot)

[Cursing at sky]

UPDATED!

A Curbed reader got a photo of the mystery structure....


[Via Curbed]

Still drilling at the Mystery Lot

@robbyohara passes along a photo from The Mystery Lot, where work has continued all week...

In October, The Real Deal reported that developer Charles Blaichman paid $33.2 million for the site. As Curbed noted at the time, Blaichman was a partner with Jay-Z and Andre Balazs on the hotel that never happened on West 14th Street; and as a partner with Balazs on a doomed project on West 21st Street.

A commenter on our last Mystery Lot post wrote, "this is going to be a condo. it was purchased with a new jersey developer who builds condos."

Mystery Lot monster leaves before getting annexed by NYU

Our friend Lux Living passes along the following photo with this upsetting news, "It seems the doomed monster of the 13th Street Mystery Lot fame has been beamed back up to his home planet."

[A moment of silence]

In reality, workers who were there to mow the rocks and weeds Tuesday most likely removed the little fellow.

And now, a fond look back...

[Via James and Karla Murray]

And, after a storm...

What is your favorite memory of the Mystery Lot Monster/Alien? Were you suspicious that it never applied for a liquor license? Or become a boutique hotel? Or annexed by NYU?

Previously.

Marketing the Mystery Lot

So you know developers are turning the long-empty Mystery Lot off 14th/13th Streets near Third Avenue into condos... The Real Deal reported yesterday afternoon that the developers "hired Jacqueline Urgo, president of the Marketing Developers, to promote the property, which is slated for groundbreaking this summer."

Jackie! (Jac? JU?) have WE got some marketing ideas for you! Let's talk! [motions with pinky-thumb to ear as if holding a phone].


More on this later. Meanwhile, the future Mystery Lot address is officially 211 E. 13th St. And another tidbit from Real Deal:

The project will feature a mix of studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, plus 4,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space on East 14th Street. Amenities include a gym, lounge and roof deck with an outdoor kitchen. Buyers will have a chance to purchase private storage and roof terraces.

And on a clear day, you'll be able to smell bacon.

This morning at the Mystery Lot

Uh-oh! Workers arrived at the scene ... However, well-placed Mystery Lot sources believe the work is being done on the Kiehl's building on the corner of 13th Street and Third Avenue here... and not the Mystery Lot... Photo by Shawn Chittle.

The Mystery Lot discards its holiday tree

And how it looked just a few weeks ago during the annual Mystery Lot Christmas Spectacular at Mystery Lot Center (14 Rock to locals) ...

Deck the walls!: Santa and his reindeer visit the Mystery Lot

Hey! Look who showed up at the Mystery Lot this holiday season...

Festive, yes?

All together now!

You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to the Mystery Lot

Thanks to EVG reader Katja for the photo...