Price for Novogratz-designed penthouse keeps falling; and see-through balcony arrives

Back in February, we wondered what those thingamajigs things were above the garage at 238 E. Fourth St., the fancy new six-level home...



Well! Now we all know... they hold up the see-through balcony...





Meanwhile, the magazine-ready two-floor (plus deck!) penthouse that Bob and Cortney Novogratz designed here will now cost you less... the PH was listed by Corcoran in March at $3.75 million... Last Thursday, the PH was reduced by $200,000 ... Here's the pricing history via Streeteasy:

03/10/2010 Listed by Corcoran at $3,750,000.
04/08/2010 Price decreased by 9 percent to $3,400,000.
04/21/2010 Price decreased by 6 percent to $3,195,000.

So the price has fallen 15 percent in less than two months... Perhaps that Novogratz name had prompted some inflated pricing at the outset... Naaaah.

B&H hangs its new sign: What do you think?

The new B&H sign is up now on Second Avenue...




Before!


[Photo above via the Voice]

What do you think of the new sign? Essentially the same...except for that really green green. Makes me a little seasick.

Previously on EV Grieve:
B&H gets its canopy but loses a sign

Here's Penny-farthing on Third Avenue, not a sports bar

Over on 13th Street and Third Avenue, work continues at the former Cafe DeVille space... EV Grieve reader Margaret passed along this shot from the weekend...



Grub Street had many more details on what will be going in here... the space, which the Phebe's folks took over, will be called Penny-farthing (a type of bicycle also known as a high wheeler). Brass Monkey designer Ben Kay is doing this space... Per Grub Street:

A year ago, it was said the space would get a sports bar, but Kay says that Penny-farthing ... will have no more than a few television sets for World Cup games and the like. Kay is giving that bi-level venue a “very industrial but comfortable atmosphere”— upstairs there’ll be a 45-foot-long bar made of “ancient-looking” wood, banquette seating, and high-top tables, as well as antique wheels, pulleys, and prints to fit the bar’s name ... Downstairs there’ll be a lounge boasting exposed stone and another bar. A full kitchen will turn out “American-English-Irish” bar food “in the same vein as Phoebe’s” (think shepherd’s pie). The owners are hoping to open in the second week of May.

I got a look myself at all this on Saturday...



Previously on EV Grieve:
At the former Cafe DeVille, the black plastic goes up, the dead potted plants go out

Butter Lane Cupcakes is expanding

On Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue... Butter Lane is taking over the vacant space next door... I asked Maria Baugh, one of the owners, for the details...



"We just took the space last week. We plan to use it for classes and events -- birthday parties, kids birthday parties, wedding showers, etc. Classes are very popular so we're expanding those. And we get a lot of requests to do parties -- now we finally have space."

Diablo Royale shows itself to Avenue A

After about 10 months or so of extensive work at 167 Avenue A, the EV location of Diablo Royale has come out from behind all the plywood...




No word on an opening date yet for Diablo Royale, which is Spanish for "another full liquor license on Avenue A."

Previously on EV Grieve:
My, what big plywood you have

Noted

New signs are up...before they pack it in for Murray Hill or the LES or America...

A colorful tag for Cooper Union

Or maybe it's a math problem...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Welcome to the neighborhood!: First tag spotted on the new Cooper Union Building

Verizon Building getting back to normal

EV Grieve reader Kim is keeping tabs on the return of the tags to the Verizon Building on 13th Street as seen in her photo below...



I took a few shots myself...




As did Woodland Creature.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Brownout: Verizon building graffiti painted over

Graceland has closed

Graceland, the deli that has been at the corner of Avenue A and Second Street since 1991, closed for good tonight ... (thanks to BaHa for letting me know the official date...) The doors were locked some time around 6:30 tonight, a neighbor said... several people walked by and were surprised to see the familiar 24-hour bodega grocery closed...







Several readers said that the rent was being increased to $20,000 a month by the landlord... Another grocer is expected to take over the space... some of the crew here will go to work next door at Gracefully...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Graceland is closing in the next 10 days

Nicky's staying in the East Village; Graceland moving out?

Graceland addresses its customers

Live Chat Roulette in Tompkins Square Park

Two NYU students are currently in Tompkins Square Park looking for volunteers to play Live Chat Roulette.... It's for a class on human interactions or something, though I wasn't really paying attention when the students were talking to me...




And I hope that everyone who participates keeps it in their pants...unlike what happens on the Web some times (you pervs).

Updated: Shepard Fairey creating new mural for the Cooper Square Hotel

Following up on yesterday's post about the whitewashing of the mural on the Cooper Square Hotel... Just like that, a new mural is in progress...




We asked a Cooper employee for confirmation of the artist, but he said he didn't know... Uh-huh. Anyway, Shepard Fairey is creating this mural too.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Goodbye Homer Simpson: The Cooper Square Hotel has a white wall again

Why you shouldn't read pages 20-21 in the Post today

David's Bagels space becoming a Mexican restaurant

After 21 years in the business, David's Bagels closed on First Avenue near 14th Street in August 2008. The landlord asked for a big rent hike...



...and was rewarded with an empty storefront for about 20 months...Now, though, as EV Grieve reader Kim passed along, workers are gutting the old space...




A nearby shopkeeper says the space will become a Mexican restaurant. "Tacos, burritos -- that kind of shit."



For further reading:
David's Bagels (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

A sad day for bagels (Blah Blog Blah ... and Jill gets credit for that top photo)

Ten months later, David’s space still empty (East Village Idiot)

Goodbye Homer Simpson: The Cooper Square Hotel has a white wall again

As Curbed first pointed out yesterday... the ode to Homer on the side of the Cooper Square Hotel was being painted over by, uh, painters... And so I went by yesterday to see what was what and all at our favorite local eyesore (uh, the hotel, not the art)...



And Blake Lively?! (No.)




And those poor bushes were smashed/displaced again on Fifth Street...



And today...



At least the Coop put on the bush condoms for safe gardening...



Anyway, I'll always remember the first site of Homer...

Even the Pee Phone is more expensive now

Previously!


Now!



This is what happens when you become World Famous! Avenue A and Seventh Street, of course.

Meanwhile, for more fun under the sidewalk shelter here, I refer you to Bob Arihood and Melanie.

Previously on EV Grieve:
New prices for the world famous Pee Phone wiped away

Fourth Street, 9:12 a.m., April 24

Second Avenue, 7:39 p.m., April 23

Free popcorn at 10th Street...

Rocks off

From "The House of the Rising Punk."

Who's having the best week ever?

From the comments:

Between the Superdive death and the scathing piece on Ben Shaoul in The Real Deal, UPPER Avenue A residents are having the BEST WEEK EVER!!

Does this mean the Cooper Square Hotel no longer wants to fit in with the neighborhood?

Curbed has the news that the mural on the side of the Cooper Square Hotel is being painted over right now... And they produced the above evidence...

As you may recall, the Hotel hired four graffiti artists — Joyce Pensato, Nick 1, Vizie and Shinique Smith — to create the mural.

As you also may recall:

Klus Ortleib, the hotel's managing partner, wants the place to fit in with the edgy local art scene. "When I came up with the idea, people said I was crazy," he said.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Cooper Square Hotel's attempt to fit in with the neighborhood ready to be unveiled