Former construction company becoming a two-family home with $4 million penthouse

Last November, we noted that Bellet Construction at 238 E. 4th Street near Avenue B was coming down... At that time, the paperwork taped to the front said the space will become a two-family residence....



And in April, the building came down.



Now, according to the Post, Bob Novogratz (of the super-awesome family fame!) is "designing and developing a 3,000-square-foot Alphabet City penthouse that should hit the market at $4 million in the next week or so. The penthouse is part of a six-story, 25-foot-wide townhouse at 238 E. Fourth St., between avenues A and B. It was a former industrial space that has been rezoned."

What!

"The townhouse's owner is design writer Sue Hostetler, who plans to live with her family in the first four floors of the townhouse while selling the top two. The Novogratz family is developing the two-floor home through their firm Sixx Design, which is also the name of a Bravo reality TV show they are working on.

"The penthouse comes with a private elevator and a 1,200-square-foot roof garden. Because it is a custom home, Bob says it could be three bedrooms or more (or less) depending on the configuration. Wendy Maitland from Brown Harris Stevens will market the listing."

Here's a progress report. The foundation is coming along...

Office space at former site of Waldorf Hysteria?

A few details about the long-vacated Waldorf Hysteria space at 165 Avenue B between 10th Street and 11th Street... a reliable source on that block said the groundfloor has been gutted, and will become office space -- most likely for a medical practice.

Dumping Bloomberg

Last week, Bloomsy graced the cover of El Especialito...earlier this week, someone dumped the issues on the sidewalk on Avenue B near Fifth Street.

Noted

"Rob Pattinson ... was hit by a taxi cab on Thursday while running away from hysterical fans. RadarOnline.com witnessed the Twilight star get clipped by a cab around noon in front of the Strand Bookstore on Broadway and 12th Street."

East Village, please meet your new nightmare

Somehow I missed this... Thanks to Eater for reporting on this... they linked to an UrbanDaddy article on the bar that's opening at the former site of Rapture on Avenue A between 12th Street and 13th Street.

The following is from UrbanDaddy.

This story is a warning.

You are about to enter a world of crazy—an all-out, raucous, beautiful disaster of a bar that will eat you alive if you let it.

Let's get right to it: meet Superdive, now taking keg service (yes, seriously) reservations for their grand East Village opening next week. Enter at your own risk…

Now, the first rule of Superdive is that there are no rules. You can mix your own cocktail behind the bar if you like. There's no door policy — anyone can come in. You can order a round of beers or a keg of beer, and a cocktail waitress will deliver the keg to your table in a rolling kegerator. You can even sit down and play their Steinway piano underneath a large applause sign.

It's total lawlessness in bar form. You'll know you're in the right place when you walk into quite possibly one of the least adorned bars you'll ever see—the walls are maroon, the banquettes have floral patterns and there's even a row of protected seats for ladies who don't want to deal with gentlemanly advances, delicately dubbed the "f*ck off seats."

Just drop in with a few (or more) friends, carve out one of the booths along the wall, order up a keg (more exotic orders, like Hitachino or Chimay, take 48 hours, but they have regular kegs in stock), take over the iPod and walk out eight hours later not recalling much of what just happened.

In other words, just like a good dive bar experience, only supersized.

An encouraging sign for the former Amato Opera?

I walk by the former Amato Opera on Bowery near Second Street fairly often. The Amato closed May 31 after a 61-year run. As Curbed noted, the building sold for $3.7 million.

Each time I walk by, I expect to see the Amato letters removed from the building...



...and all the costumes boxed up...




Still, I have some hope for this space. The Real Deal reported in late January that the building's new owner wants another theater to occupy the ground floor.

Plus! I find this encouraging: This commemorative plaque went up at the Amato this week.



Would anyone bother with a plaque if the building was going to turn into, say, a condo?

For further reading:
Amato Opera (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Speaking of the Bowery...

DBGB has a canopy!

Still speaking of the Bowery

Former child actress Lindsay Lohan went shopping at Blue & Cream at First Street and the Bowery on Tuesday.



I've never paid any attention to this store. Have you ever looked at the stuff they sell? Like the Bowery T-shirts for $90?





[Lohan photo: PacificCoastNews.com]

Jimmy McMillan campaigns in the East Village last night (yes, the rent is too damn high)

Spotted Jimmy McMillan in action last night. I saw him on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue ... telling people that "rent is too damn high" from the soundsystem that he has hooked up...

Breaking: Lower East Side is NYC's "hottest nightlife neighborhood"

Cityfile has a report on Zagat's new nightlife survey. Some 6,000 New Yorkers were allegedly surveyed. And what did they say?:

The Lower East Side is NYC's "hottest nightlife neighborhood," while the meatpacking district was named "most over-rated/or over-hyped." As for "the growing trend of bars with master mixologists," more than half of the people surveyed said it was "an excuse to charge more for drinks."

One way of dealing with roof-party snobs, courtesy of Sonic Youth

Thanks to This Ain't the Summer of Love for alerting us to the new Sonic Youth single/video.

The ramenators remove the wood

What it looked like Tuesday evening.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

The Mars Bar gets painted white (Little Stories and Maybe Poems from Now and Then)

The clothesline returns behind the Coop (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Thompson LES honcho: "Part of the process is to ingratiate the neighborhood and realize that the hotel, the pool, the restaurant, the bar are actually an asset and do make for a better, safer, cleaner neighborhood that creates more jobs and creates more energy and ultimately has a positive ripple effect for residents, for merchants, for everyone around it." (Grub Street)

At the Bowery Stakeholders' meeting (BoweryBoogie)

At the Peppermint Lounge in July 1982 (Ephemeral New York)

NYC has the fucking worst fucking road rage (Gothamist)

Some UK dive bars for you — and will they put on the Yankees game instead of this soccer? (Hunter-Gatherer)

A guide to Gramercy (Lost City)

Slum Goddess at the Chicago Blues Festival (Slum Goddess)

Q-and-A with director Susan Seidelman (FlavorWire)

Oldest bar in NYC? (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

Finally, thanks to the reader who sent me this. However, I don't accept advertising on this site.

Looking at the "Lower East Side: An Endangered Place"

In the Examiner today, Bernie Mooney has a piece on a short documentary called "Lower East Side: An Endangered Place." It will be part of a program at the Asian American International Film Festival, which begins July 23. As Mooney writes, "In the past decade, the Lower East Side has become a Disneyland for drunks and a playground for out of control development. History is fast being lost."

The documentary by director MA Shumin looks at "the gentrification of the area and how that has affected the lives of people who live and work there." Here's the trailer



Thanks to commenter Geoff for telling us the film will show at 5 p.m. on Friday, July 24, as part of the "Home Is Where The Heart Is" shorts program.

Easy as One Two Three

I've been kicking around the idea of seeing the "The Taking of Pelham" remake. So-so reviews. I know people who really liked it, though. Perhaps it's one to sneak a few beers into. Help pass the time.

Anyway, over at Runnin' Scared, Roy Edroso compared what "New York on film means now, and what it meant when the 1974 Joseph Sargent version ... was new." He seems to sum up exactly why I'm not hurrying to throw $12.50 at the theater.

A few of his points:

"In the 1974 film, the low-ceilinged control center, the glimpses of grim city streets, and Mr. Green's crummy walk-up at the finale suggest enough of the battered old New York to make an impression. There aren't too many physical details that stand out in the new 123..."

And!

"The old film has a comic undertone that the new one can't afford. 2009's jacked-up pace is part of it, but it's also a philosophical difference. In the new film everyone's playing for high stakes all the time, clenched like fists. In the old film, most characters show some weary resignation, which is something city folk have to learn if they're to keep going."

Not to mention John Travolta's hammy theatrics.

And here's a little filmstripesque sequence from the first film... when the transport of the ransom money gets sidetracked at Astor Place.










Related!:
5 New York 70s Movies We Are Terrified to See Remade

Previously on EV Grieve:
New York City subway films of the 1970s

The ransacking of Pelham One Two Three

Yogurt and cherries on St. Mark's Place

In case you haven't already made this connection...

Perhaps they spent all the money on the renovation and flat-screen TVs

The new sign is up at Aces & Eights on Avenue A.





Looks a little...? Small? Homemade? High school shop classy?

The ramenating continues

At the former Love Saves the Day store on Second Avenue and Seventh Street. There's still a bit of the old shop's color there inside...

Previously.

Dog day afternoon

And this "Con-Vick" art is on the plywood out front of Love Saves the Day.



The artist is from Union City, N.J. I'm not familiar with his work.

Waiting on a friend

I noticed a little artwork on the wall of the former Tribe along St. Mark's Place at First Avenue....

Sunday:




Didn't last too long.

Tuesday:




Perhaps the landlord felt as if the art "was not going to enhance the aesthetic of the building."

And as far as I know, the tapas place is still expected in this location.

News from other East Villages: Shots fired at a party bus in the East Village of San Diego

According to 10 News in San Diego:

A shooter fired three rounds from a shotgun at a party bus early Monday morning in the East Village following an apparent road rage incident in La Mesa, but no one was injured in the attack, a police sergeant said.

The shooting occurred while the party bus was stopped at a gas station in the 1600 block of F Street around 1 a.m., according to San Diego police Sgt. Bob Dare.

Several people were on the bus when a white van pulled up and someone from the van got out and fired three shotgun rounds at the front of the bus, Dare said.

Report: CBGB settlement case comes to a close

The Voice has the story today... after nearly two years of legal wrangling, the case was settled out of court.

The Hells Angels kindly request that hotel guests please refrain from sitting on their bench

The bench outside the Hells Angels headquarters on Third Street now features a recently added sign:




Given the proximity now of the Bowery Hotel and, more recently, the Cooper Square Hotel... I'd say one too many clueless hotel guests plopped down with a cup of FroYo to take in some authentic NYC scenery. Woo, honey check out the mopeds! Sit on one while I take your picture!

Man, I wish I would have seen this!

[Update: In the comments, reader James provides more information: "The sign is actually for the guests of an illegal hotel next door at 73-75 E 3rd. I used to live there as the building 'management' was turning the building into a 'Vegan Hotel' despite 8 complaints into the department of buildings to my last count. Now they even have a blog... I can see how the Hells Angels could be upset. They are great neighbors btw, if you don't sit on their bench."]

Not too long ago, I saw a harmless-looking delivery guy start to chain up his bicycle on the light pole to the west of the HQ's front door. The delivery was for the building next door. From a doorway across the street, a man emerged and hollered with authority: "MOVE THAT BIKE." Somehow, the delivery guy missed the "No Parking Except Authorized Hells Angels" sign.

Media find people suddenly, suspiciously outraged over Calvin Klein billboard

Back on May 7, smut peddler BoweryBoogie noted the new Calvin Klein ad on Lafayette and Houston. Yeah, this one in which $3,500 of Nair was used. (Photo via BB too.) And BB has more on this story today too.



Well, five weeks later, Fox News yesterday, for unknown reasons, trots out folks from central casting to be OUTRAGED over this, this...smut.
Cue the prudey out of towner:

"It's soft pornography is what it is," said Laurie Baranowski, who said she was in New York for a visit. "I don't think that just because you put Calvin Klein's name on it makes it acceptable. It's a beautiful picture, but I don't think that that's the place for it."

(Has she ever seen soft pornography?)

Then there's the do-goody association spokesperson that exists only to be outraged for the media:

"I think that this company has a moral obligation to our country to display their product in an appropriate manner, especially in a public venue where you have thousands of thousands of children who will see this ad," said Randy Sharp of the American Family Association. "I find this kind of ad repulsive, I find it disgusting, I find it inappropriate for a public venue. For my family of five, Calvin Klein will never see a dollar of our money."

(Do they sell Calvin Klein at Wal-Mart?)

Then there's the seen-it-all-New Yorker:

Joaquin Liguas, who heard about the billboard when he woke up in the morning, told FOXNews.com he wasn't bothered by it; he's seen much racier stuff on city streets.

(Who told him about the billboard when he woke up? Where has he been the last five weeks?)

Outrage story complete! Mr. Klein, please pay your publicity team.

Meanwhile, WIVB-TV in Buffalo checks in...


Other news coverage of this controversy via Google....

Gentlemen, this is a headline

Haven't seen an ad here since "King of the Hill" graced our presence last December. And now....an ad returns to the northwest corner of Sixth Street and Avenue A. And it's a douchey doozy.




Please expect "Gentlemen, this is..." jokes the entire summer. I've already incorporated the saying in random conversations, like the other day at Mamoun's: "Gentlemen, this is Baba Ghannouj."

Speaking of ads...

There's also this new Vans campaign, as seen here on the Westville wall on 11th Street at Avenue A.



I don't really know what this ad is trying to say.

Reminder tonight: Meeting for a plan to preserve the Bowery

Click on the image below to read the Bowery Alliance of Neighbor's plan to preserve the east side of the Bowery from Ninth Street to Canal. There's a meeting to discuss the plan tonight.



I originally posted this June 6. Sure, some people think this is all a little late... but as East Village History Project said in the comments: "If it brings attention to the Bowery's historic significance, it won't be in vain."

Noted

As Ben Widdicombe reported at stylelist.com:

Everyone remembers the first time they read "Fabulous Nobodies," author Lee Tulloch's cult '80s fashion novel set in New York's East Village.

Long before Carrie Bradshaw there was Reality Nirvana Tuttle ... trying to get by as a "door whore" at a trendy downtown club and striving for that elusive quality of New York fabulousness.

I read the book lying on a college dorm room floor thousands of miles away, and it's one of those classics about Manhattan that just makes you want to throw your most glamorous clothes into a suitcase and move to the city right away.

Tulloch, a former New Yorker who in recent years relocated back to her native Sydney, was in town ... to celebrate the development of her novel into a movie.

Double noted

"Robert Pattinson's new movie, which is tentatively titled Remember Me, began filming in New York City this afternoon. As an exasperated crew member was overheard complaining, 'They might as well call it Paparazzi and 'Tweens, 'cause there's more of us than them!' It was a fair statement considering how the crowd had swelled substantially (a rough estimate of 200) outside of NYU's Silver Center of Arts & Science, after fans had texted and called their friends to get to downtown Manhattan." (Entertainment Weekly)

"I came all the way from Las Vegas for this!" said 26-year-old Patricia Galas. "I've been here since Friday and I leave tomorrow. I like his hair and his music. I really just want to ask him when he's playing next so I can see him live. I've read all the books." (OK! magazine)

[Diane Cohn/Fame Pictures]

Beaming up on the Bowery

I snapped a few shots Saturday of the beam action happening at 263 Bowery, just south of Houston. I must have just missed BoweryBoogie, who was there too. BB has more on what's happening here... and the progress thus far on the seven-story mystery project...