Ben Shaoul and company put East Fourth Street buildings on the market for $25 million

[Massey Knakal]

Some residents of 118 and 120 E. Fourth St., which went under new management about 18 months ago, knew something was up in their building. One resident reported seeing various men in suits being shown around the building in recent months.

Now we know why. Massey Knakal has just listed 118-122 E. Fourth St.

Here's the listing:

Massey Knakal Realty Services has been retained on an exclusive basis to arrange for the sale of three adjacent walk-up apartment buildings; one 6-story, one 5-story and a 4-story that includes newly added bulkheads to private terraces. The buildings are on two lots with 75’ of frontage, approximately 26,000 gross square feet and 69 units. Located just east of Broadway and the Bowery in one of New York City’s most famous and desirable neighborhoods, the East Village is known for its diverse community, vibrant nightlife, retail diversity & restaurant density, artistic sensibility, and recent gentrification.

The buildings feature 69 apartments split between 47 fair market and 22 rent stabilized units of which there are 31 studios, 34 one-bedrooms, 3 two-bedrooms and 1 three-bedroom. The fair market apartments have been fully gut renovated and feature beautiful dark hardwood floors, dark cabinetry, stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, marble bathrooms, new moldings, and high-end light fixtures.

Current ownership has also completely renovated all of the building’s common areas, installed a coin-operated laundry room, upgraded the electric, repointed the facade wherever necessary, re-paved the courtyard which has beautiful decorative stone that includes a bike rack as well as installed a new intercom system, private roof decks and private backyards in the 118 building. These improvements have dramatically increased the amount of upside to be realized with the building’s 22 remaining regulated units.

If you've been following along at Occupy East Fourth Street, the blog we featured here, then you'll know all about these recent "improvements." The site is full of renovation-demolition horror stories, like this one.

As we understand it, Ben Shaoul's Magnum Management, in partnership with Meadow Partners, bought the buildings in late 2010. Fortune East LLC is the company that manages the buildings.

The asking price for the buildings is $25 million.

Here's the reaction to this news by the blog Living in a Building Managed by Fortune East:

$25,000,000? I wonder if I’ll ever finally get a fucking door that fucking works

According to public records, 118 East 4th LLC bought 118 E. Fourth St. in November 2010 for $4.025 million; 120-122 East 4th, LLC bought 120-122 E. Fourth St. on the same date for $7,475 million... good for $11.5 million total.

Chloë Sevigny's East Village home is for sale

Last Thursday, we posted photos of that lovely home at 119 E. 10th St. that was new to the market. A commenter said that this was Chloë Sevigny's apartment.

Given how many times that we've seen her home in various publications, you'd think that we'd have recognized it. The folks at maison21 put it all together, matching up the photos from a 2007 House & Garden spread with pictures from the listing.

From the listing...

... and the House & Garden...

Yep, it's the same place. And it's current asking price is $1.7 million. (And if you're into this kind of thing, Parker Posey also lived in the same building...)

Anyway, Sevigny told this to New York magazine last month.

As for her home, she’s thinking about moving to a high-rise again; she wants more light and is tiring of co-op rules. “I’m looking,” she says. “Maybe I won’t find the right thing and I’ll just stay here. Or maybe I’ll fall in love and get married and move somewhere else entirely. You never know!”

This is the largest bone that I have ever seen lying on an East Village sidewalk

OK, or any sidewalk.

On Monday, we posted a photo by EV Grieve reader William Klayer showing a very large bone on the sidewalk... Well, we didn't quite get just how large this bone was... here's another angle of the bone that EV Grieve reader Mark spotted on First Avenue and Ninth Street...

New bone marrow dish at Prune?

Any theories? Conspiracies? Explanations?

Vandaag says goodbye (and 'Proost!')

Yesterday morning, we had the post about Vandaag being closed of late on Second Avenue at East Sixth Street... later in the day, Eater got word that the nearly two-year-old Dutch eatery had closed for good.

A goodbye sign went up later in the afternoon... via EV Grieve regular peter radley...

[Click to enlarge]

Robert Sietsema at Fork in the Road noted the signage and closure yesterday afternoon. You can read his thoughts on the matter here.

Meanwhile, in an email, an EVG regular wondered if Vandaag ever actually had a "plumbing emergency" like the handwritten sign on its front window suggested. "Did they decide to close before or after the 'plumbing emergency?'"

When a sculpture arrives on East First Street

A reader takes us over to East First Street late yesterday afternoon... where four men were delivering this...

The sculpture arrived in style...

The movers understandably didn't have much to say about what they were transporting...

Anyone know what this is...? Or who the artist is?

Angelina Cafe expanding, moving across Avenue A

[Circa 2009]

Well, finally some positive news about a neighborhood restaurant expanding and not closing... RyanAvenueA passes along word that Angelina Cafe on Avenue A near East Third Street will be moving across the street later in the summer to 37 Avenue A... the long-empty space that was previously home to the Two Boots Restaurant.

In recent weeks, workers put paper up on the front windows at 37. Work is expected to take another two months.

Angelina Cafe at its new address is on the June CB3/SLA docket.

Memorial for Roxana Sorina Buta on Union Square

EVG reader John sends along this photo of a memorial at Union Square.

Early last Thursday morning, Roxana Sorina Buta was returning to her East Harlem home from her job as a waitress at Bar 6 on Sixth Avenue and 13th Street. She was reportedly crossing Broadway at East 14th Street when a dump truck struck and killed her. She was 21.

The driver reportedly never stopped ... and the woman's mother is asking for the driver to turn himself in. "He hit my daughter and he just kept on driving. Who does something like that? He should give himself up," the mother, Cristina Oprea, told the Post in an article published this morning.

Gothamist has more about the Hunter College student and aspiring actress here.

The above sign reads, "Sleep tight our darling sister, and stay with us always."

It is a dark and stormy night

Avenue A and Second Street a little earlier. Photo by @JessicaScherlag

No Manhattanhenge tonight, just clouds

Crazy Eddie gave it a try on East 14th Street... will try again tomorrow night. More on Manhattanhenge here.

Demolition starts tomorrow at former counterculture theater on Avenue B

EV Grieve reader Ron Z. spotted workers and a new sign up this morning at the long-empty 185-193 Avenue B at East 12th Street.

According to the DOB, demolition will start here tomorrow...

There are plans waiting approval at the DOB for a mixed-use seven-story building with 44 units. (You can read a short history of what's happening with the space here.)

The address was a movie theater for many years, first the Bijou in 1926, then the Charles. (The theater closed in 1975, and a church took over the space.) A fire broke out in the building in October 2006.

Earlier this year, Brooklyn-based photographer Matt Lambros took shots of the space for After the Final Curtain, his photo site on abandoned architecture.

You can find his photos here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Revival planned for church and theater on Avenue B

Inside the Charles

Former landmark countercultural theater now for rent on Avenue B

7-story building in the works to replace former countercultural theater/church on Avenue B

Jeff Buckley died on this date in 1997

[Jeff Buckley on St. Mark's Place circa 1993 via]

Peter Ferraro at East Village Radio reminds us that today is the anniversary of Jeff Buckley's death in 1997. After working with his band in Memphis on the evening of May 29, Buckley went swimming in Wolf River Harbor off the Mississippi River and drowned. Buckley was 30. He had one studio album to his name, the critically praised "Grace" that came out in August 1994.

"He did so much with one studio album," Ferraro said in an email. "It's one of my all-time favorite records. I could only imagine what would've come next."

Buckley, an East Village resident since 1990, was a regular at Sin-é at 122 St. Mark's Place in the early 1990s. (The St. Mark's version of Sin-é closed in 1996.) His Monday night residency was quite popular.

You can read his official bio here.

Late last summer/early fall, a few scenes for "Greetings From Tim Buckley" filmed in the East Village. Here's the official synopsis for the Jeff Buckley-Tim Buckley biopic:

Greetings from Tim Buckley follows the true story of the days leading up to Jeff Buckley’s eminent 1991 performance at his father’s tribute concert in St. Ann’s Church. Through a romance with a young woman working at the concert, he learns to embrace all of his feelings toward the father who abandoned him — longing, anger, forgiveness, and love. Culminating a cathartic performance of his father’s most famous songs, Jeff’s debut stuns the audience and launches his career as one of the greatest young musicians of his time.

Penn Badgley from "Gossip Girl" fame — and no stranger to the East Village! — portrays Jeff. No exact release date yet for the movie. (There's another Jeff Buckley biopic in the works, which you can read about here.)

East Village Radio assembled a collection of Jeff Buckley videos, which you can find here.

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