Christmas Eve blockbusters -- Cooper Square Hotel in default on $52 million in loans: report

The Real Deal has the blockbuster:

A German bank claims the developers of the year-old sleek 21-story Cooper Square Hotel in the East Village are in default on $52 million in loans, at the same time the building owes millions to contractors.

Not only is the project in financial distress, but developers and investors in the 145-room hotel at 25 Cooper Square at East 5th Street could owe as much as $6 million in personal guarantees, the recent lawsuit says.

Commercial lender WestLB filed to foreclose on $52 million in loans given to Cooper Square Hotel, Cooper Square Mezz Lender and seven individuals including the hotel's co-developer Matthew Moss and real estate investor Kyle Ransford, a lawsuit filed Dec. 14 in New York State Supreme Court says.

Walking on 14th Street: Nordstrom setting a date; Baked by Melissa and Subway coming soon

Maybe I should walk on 14th Street near Union Square more often. Or not.

Noticed that a Baked By Melissa shop is coming to 14th Street just east of Fifth Avenue. She bakes tiny cupcakes.



You know that the Nordtrom Racked store is opening at the former Virgin Megastore location... Now a date has been set for the opening: May 11, 2010. (And will they actually make that date?)



And the city's 8,976th Subway is opening right along the Chipotle and Bravo Pizza in the Zeckendorf Towers on the northwest corner of Irving Place and 14th Street.



EV Grieve reader Nowooski pointed this out the other day...

Time to toss the tree already?

Jeez, I usually wait until Christmas morning to chuck the Grieve tree.

On Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Speaking of trees....

Plenty left on Second Avenue in front of the St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery...



You'll likely be able to get a bargain seeing as they're throwing all the dead trees in a pile...

Things to do this holiday that involve watching movies

For your holiday movie viewing pleasure, consider EV Grieve favorite "Blast of Silence," the black-hearted NYC noir from 1961... it concerns a hitman on assignment in New York City during the Christmas holidays... and Bad Boy Frankie Bono really hates Christmas. And cities. And pretty much everything.

To the trailer...



While here, Frankie stays at the Valencia Hotel on St. Mark's Place (now the St. Mark's Hotel)...



Thanks to EV Grieve reader Mykola (Mick) Dementiuk for this screenshot...

On my list, there's Martin Scorsese's first film, "Who's That Knocking at my Door," whose opening scene is on a stretch of Houston that you may recognize...



Thanks to the Graffiti Friend of EV Grieve (GFOEVG, of course) for passing this along via Smart Crew.

And as a P.S., an old stuffy favorite, "Weekend at the Waldorf."

Things to do this holiday season (or any other day): Go to Ray's

When you're out and about this holiday season, stop by Ray's Candy Store on Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place... the food is tasty...and...

...business isn't so good. As Slum Goddess noted:

He cut the price of his Belgian "Obama" waffles to $2.00..Don't know if it was the right thing to do..but his business is slow...PLEASE go there and support Ray's Candy Store..If he closes Avenue A will have lost an icon..

And Scoopy reported this week...

[H]e said, this is the first time since he bought the hole-in-the-wall store in 1974 that he’s never paid his rent on the first of the month. "They might throw me out," he said matter of factly. "If I work alone — no girls, no help — I will make $100 a day and pay my rent. ... And if lose my store, I lose my apartment, too. This is my only income, and it’s too cold to collect cans." He wasn’t kidding.

Also, according to Bob Arihood, look for some new coffee products soon at Ray's...

And now, my collection of the newish American Apparel ads

The dialogue balloon coming from her rear says, "Hello my name is objectified flesh..."

Sorry to ruin your holidays

Searching for the truth about the cats and dogs mural on Avenue A

Back in the fall, we devoted several posts to Chico's "spay/neuter" mural on Avenue A near 12th Street that was painted over for a Kobe Bryant video game ad.

Interestingly enough, Media magazine reported on the story. (Thanks to the reporter, Christine Champagne, who reached out to me for the article.) Here are portions of the piece (you can find the whole thing right here):

For nine years, cats and dogs loomed large over a parking lot on Avenue A as part of an iconic Advocates for Animals mural on the side of a tenement building in Manhattan's East Village. Created by well-known local muralist Chico, the mural tugged at the heartstrings with an assortment of animals — including a sweet kitty with pleading eyes and a trusty German Shepherd — urging local residents to spay and neuter their pets, and providing a number to call for assistance.

But the mural, which can be seen in the opening moments of the 2005 film "Winter Passing," was whitewashed this fall and replaced with an ad for 2K Sports' NBA 2K10 basketball video game, and now NBA superstar Kobe Bryant looms large on the wall.

For her part, Irene Muschel, a social worker and animal activist who runs Advocates for Animals, and hired Chico to paint the mural back in April 2000, didn't even know it had been covered up until MEDIA contacted her.

Muschel claimed that the landlord of 189 Avenue A, Desides Weinberg, was contractually obligated — "We had a legal contract drawn up by an attorney and signed by me, Chico and the landlord" — to keep the Animals for Advocates mural up for 10 years. If that's the case, the mural should have stayed in place until April 2010. "About a year ago, the landlord that signed the contract called me about how he needed income, and he said there was an advertiser who wanted to put something up there, and would I go along with it," Muschel recalls. "I said no, actually, and I had contacted a lawyer. But then it just faded away."

For his part, Weinberg repeatedly insisted that the contract Muschel speaks of was a "phony contract." He also faulted Muschel for not properly maintaining the mural, pointing out that chunks of it had fallen off the side of the building over the years.

One has to wonder: Did New York-based KD&E Advertising, which did the media buy for the NBA 2K10 campaign, realize the ad would replace a mural that had special meaning to East Village residents? KD&E did not return calls or respond to efforts made to reach someone at the agency on MEDIA's behalf by a representative for 72andsunny, the creative agency on the campaign.

Muschel says she is not going to pursue the matter legally or otherwise, instead choosing to focus on the good the mural did. "The mural helped a great many animals get spayed and neutered and provided answers on a wide variety of animal issues to people who called," she muses. "It did its work."

Previously on EV Grieve:
NBA ad takes over

New bar coming to 14-16 Avenue B

Back in September, we reported that a new bar/restaurant was coming to the corner of Avenue B and Second Street. We were told then by a worker on the scene that the wall between the two vacant storefronts at 14 Avenue B and 16 Avenue B will be torn down... and the spaces will be combined.



It looked as if someone was working on whatever that bar used to be called at 14 Avenue B...



And now, something called BKLYN Local Draft LLC is looking for a full liquor license at 14 Avenue B before the CB3/SLA folks at their Jan. 11 meeting. The current liquor license for 14 Avenue B is inactive.

Previously on EV Grieve:
New bar/restaurant for lower Avenue B?

Also on the liquor license docket: PJ Hanley's new pizza parlor coming to 122 First Ave.

Also on the CB3/SLA liquor license agenda on Jan. 11.... The incoming pizza parlor from the PJ Hanley's folks is looking for a full liquor license at 122 First Ave.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rumors!: Will PJ Hanley's be opening a pizza shop on First Avenue?

A Stop Work Order for the P.J. Hanley's pizza parlor on First Avenue

Also on the liquor license docket: Sigmund Pretzel Shop

Sigmund's, the new gourmet pretzel shop at 29 Avenue B near Third Street, is applying for a license to serve wine ... which is fine (heh, rhymes)... but how about some beer for those pretzels? And has anyone been here yet? Just curious what this place is like...

Updated:

Food blogger (and EV Grieve reader) BaHa paid a visit to Sigmund's last month... She wrote about it at her site, With Leftovers. Briefly though, she said: "These babies are pretzels at their best."


Previously on EV Grieve:
Avenue B's pretzel logic

39 Second Avenue for lease

For some reason I can't remember anything ever being in 39 Second Avenue, on the northwest corner of Second Street. At least not in the last few years... Anyway, this prime space is now for lease...



The listings at Winick include a few inside shots...



And, apparently, proximity to the Mars Bar is a selling point...



(But no mention of the Anthology Film Archives, which is across the way...?)

At least East Village shoplifters still have good tastes in books

Still catching up with the Sunday Times, where I noticed this article about an uptick in shoplifting at bookstores...

Fiction is the most commonly poached genre at St. Mark’s Bookshop in the East Village of Manhattan; the titles that continually disappear are moved to the X-Case, safely ensconced behind the counter. This library of temptation includes books by Martin Amis, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, Raymond Carver, Don DeLillo and Jack Kerouac, among others.

Never too early to start thinking about the Bowery-side pool parties

While trudging through the slushy, mucky leftovers from the storm of the century/decade/year/weekend on the Bowery, we spied the terrace with spa-pool atop 52E4, seemingly ready for action. No mere snowstorm will knock over these canopies!




The pool parties to come here at the 15 stories of condo will no doubt provide a treasure trove of blog posts some time later in the New Year. For that, we are grateful.

Help save the doomed MTA lines

On the Mark on 13th Street

A new barber shop is ready to open on the south side of 13th Street near First Avenue...




...complete with an old-school barber pole...

Happy Holidays from the Hells Angels

Yeah, they put up some lights every year on their Third Street HQ. For some reason I never took a picture of it, though...and the setting makes for a fine holiday greeting with the snow...

East Hardware closing

The signs at East Hardware at 79 Third Avenue near 11th Street say that the store is moving from its ground floor space in the Third North NYU dorm...




When I asked where they were moving, I received a blank look. Pause. "We're not. We're just leaving this location." Rent hike. I said that I was sorry to hear this. I was met with a shrug of the shoulders. "That's life."

Yes, especially here.

Polishing up the Pee Phone

Yesterday, a man was busy cleaning up the Pee Phone on Avenue A and Seventh Street...He was cleaning the glass, scrubbing off some graffiti...generally just making things cleaner...



...so that we all can see these...



More Pee Phone Photos:
Pee Phone: Still Gross Yet Sexy as Hell! (Slum Goddess)

Strange Happening Atop the Infamous "Pee" Phone at 7th Street and Avenue A Wednesday Night (Neither More Nor Less)

Pee Pee Phone On E7th St.& Ave. A (Melanie)

Great Jones Cafe back open today? (Update: No)

The signage on the door (and Web site) indicates that the Great Jones Cafe on Great Jones near the Bowery will reopen today.



A fire knocked the eatery out of commission back in mid-November. As the Web site states, call ahead first.

UPDATE: A reader noted that the Web site now says Dec. 29 for the opening date.

Noted

To plan your holidays.

As for New Year's Eve, Eater reported on Superdive's special:

For the low, low price of $75, party goers will get seven hours of endless kegs of beer, premium cocktails, Champagne, music, dancing and last but not least, kissing!

As the snow continues to melt...

...Pope John Paul II gets a new hat at St. Stanislaus Church on Seventh Street between First Avenue and Avenue A...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

10th Street and Fourth Avenue ready to fall? (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

The Scouting NY guide to the City (Scouting NY)

All Patti Smith, all the time. Which is good (The New York Times)

Bloody wheelchair battle at EV shelter (Gothamist)

Jude Law defends tossing his fruit at NYU students (New York Post)

Hanging out with Mickey Leigh and Legs McNeil (This Ain't the Summer of Love)

"Monpura," a successful Bangladeshi film, opens tonight at the Theatre 80 on St. Mark's Place.

More neighborhood snow shots at BoweryBoogie and Musings by Melanie and Blah Blog Blah. And some at Coney Island. (Lexiphane)



And at Maxwell's in Hoboken ... From the press release:

A selection of oil paintings by Jon Hammer exploring the charms of a vanishing natural resource. Bars, taverns, and tap rooms, whether they are of historic vintage or more simply valued as a neighborhood hangout, are constantly under threat of extinction. Cookie cutter Irish-pub-in-a-box and sports bars proliferate with the speed and tenacity of fungal spores. This group of paintings seeks a visual fungicide for that trend in some of the best old-fashioned watering holes. Some are New York City legends, others are humbler, and a few, sadly, are already gone. Each work attempts to preserve a bit of the quiet, dusty, organic clutter that brews over time in a good saloon. They function as a two dimensional attitude adjustment hour.

John Penley's photo blog

Longtime East Village activist/photojournalist John Penley has launched a new photo blog, where you can find provocative shots from the neighborhood such as this...



Visit his site here.

For further reading on EV Grieve:
John Penley leaves his photography collection to archenemy NYU; still annoyed by NYU students

Take two

This Web site turns two today. I'm grateful to everyone who has been a reader and commenter. I've enjoyed making friends with so many like-minded people who appreciate this very special neighborhood. Thank you for being part of this.

(Updated) The Penistrator, or a clever imitator, returns

With this weekend's snowfall, we expected as much...On Avenue A near Fourth Street...



Unfortunately, much of the possible evidence was tainted before we could properly examine it.



Bob Arihood also captured some of the Penistrator's work from the weekend storm.

UPDATED:

While out and about earlier, we found more handiwork from this shameless snoffiti artist...






Previously on EV Grieve:
An EV Grieve investigative report: In search of the Penistrator

A stunning development: Is Haley Joel Osment the Penistrator?

Snow is in the forecast tonight, which means....

The Ludlow roof used for PETA's nude photo shoot

Last week, you may have read about PETA's latest "Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" ad that we unveiled in Times Square featuring Bethenny Frankel, who is apparently on "The Real Housewives of New York City."

Anyway, the photo shoot took place atop The Ludlow at Ludlow and Houston, according to PETA.



Perhaps The Ludlow can figure out a way to work this into their marketing materials.

Hmmm...How about:

"Red Square has the first head of state of the Soviet Union...



...but we have Bethenny Frankel!"



If you want, you may watch a behind-the-scenes video of the photo shoot, which also features images of animals getting clubbed to death.