Space that houses 1st Avenue's Polish-American diner Neptune is on the market

The storefronts currently housing the Neptune and Lin's Laundromat at 192-194 First Ave. between East 11th Street and East 12th Street are on the market.

The listings at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank note that the rent for Neptune's 1,660 square feet is available upon request… and the possession of the space that houses the Polish-American diner was December 2014.

The spaces cannot be combined, per the listing.

The laundromat space is apparently "ideal for juice bar or cafe" …



Not sure if there's a need for another juice bar, given that Juice Press has two locations on East 10th Street between Second Avenue and Avenue A … not to mention Liquiteria on Second Avenue and East 11th Street and beQu Juice on East Ninth Street just west of First Avenue…

Will be sorry to see the Neptune eventually go. It has been here since 2001 (taking over the KK's space). It is always a hearty and inexpensive option… and, at least from our recent visits, rarely crowded. (We recall a Saturday night in December when the restaurant sat empty at 7:30.)

Not sure what happened here … a rent hike or just more of the neighborhood's changing culinary habits. (RIP Polonia, Kiev, Christine's, Leshko's, Teresa's…)

Saint's Alp Teahouse closes for a revamp

Saint's Alp Teahouse at 39 Third Ave. near East Ninth Street closed after business on Saturday… it's just for what the detailed sign on the door describes as "a minor renovation" …



That's about as detailed as a closed for renovation sign gets… Meanwhile, follow them on Facebook or Twitter for reopening news.

Saint's Alp last closed for a renovation back in May 2010.

Matty's makes it official on Avenue B

The transformation of Idle Hands to Matty's looks nearly complete at 25 Avenue B… someone painted the Matty's name on the space between East Second Street and East Third Street over the weekend. The bar officially opened on Dec. 12.



The owners ran a gay bar in Wilton Manors, Fla., called Matty's on the Drive that closed in late 2012 following a year-long legal case.

Here's a description of the place via Facebook:

Matty's NYC is the sister bar to the famed Matty's on the Drive in Wilton Manors, FL. Matty's on the Drive opened four years ago and has won awards including Best New Bar, Best Gay Bar, Best Signature Martini, and Best Neighborhood Bar to name a few. Matty's NYC will follow in it's sisters footsteps bringing the hottest music and videos, a friendly staff, and a clean, modern, upscale bar & lounge that everyone can enjoy 7 days a week!

Matty's recently unveiled a college night…



Some neighbors still want to know how this one slipped by CB3. Matty's was on last month's CB3/SLA agenda, though it wasn't heard before the committee. It was billed as a Corporate Change with 100 percent turnover in the corporate partners … and with operators from out of state without any track record of running a bar in NYC.

Thanks to @Salim for the top photos!

Previously on EV Grieve:
A bar called Matty's in the works for Idle Hands on Avenue B

Former Everything Bagels space now for rent on 3rd Avenue and NYU

The for lease signs have arrived at the bagel shop, which closed earlier this year in the storefronts of NYU's Third North dorm … on Third Avenue and East 12th Street.

The listing isn't online just yet.

And as we've pointed out, this is Newmark Grubb Knight Frank's third listing here along Third Avenue … two storefronts remain for rent in the base of NYU's Alumni Hall at East Ninth Street.



Previously on EV Grieve:
NYU neighbors Just Sweet and Everything Bagels have apparently closed on 3rd Avenue

New York Sports Club brands its new Avenue A home

One of the final pieces of the new New York Sports Club is in place at 28 Avenue A — the signage…



Now the gym here between East Second Street and East Third Street just needs some weights and treadmills and what not (or maybe all that has already been moved inside)…

The NYSC website now says this location will open in Winter 2015.

Previously on EV Grieve:
New York Sports Club in the works for Avenue A

Sidewalk bridge and scaffolding arrive ahead of planned New York Sports Club on Avenue A

New York Sports Club says hello on Avenue A

Familiar Burger-Klein sign has disappeared from Avenue A

Here is the New York Sports Club building on Avenue A

Tuscan food specialist opening 1st U.S. outpost on 4th Avenue for some reason

[EVG file photo]

After nearly two and a half years since Dryden Gallery moved out, 129 Fourth Ave. is getting a new full-time tenant.

The Post reports that the first U.S. outpost of Mi Garba ("I like it" in Italian!) is opening here just south of East 13th Street.

And what will they sell?

The flagship 1,000 square-foot space, at 129 Fourth Ave., will include a restaurant with 10 tables. There will also be Tuscan food and wine for sale along with a boutique offering fashion items, including custom-made shirts and jackets.

The space was previously home to a pop-up gallery last May featuring model-photographer Amber Arbucci's breasts.

A Fresh & Co. is opening next door to the incoming Mi Garba on the southeast corner of Fourth Avenue and 13th Street.

East 5th Street remains blocked off after threat against the 9th Precinct

[Photo by Derek Berg]

Multiple readers have told us that East Fifth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue has been closed since this morning. Only residents are allowed onto the block.

Word on the street is that there was some kind of threat made against the 9th Precinct, which sits mid-block.

That'a all we've heard at the moment.

The NYPD and other police departments in the United States and elsewhere have reportedly been on alert since an ISIS threat from last September recently resurfaced.


[Photo via EVG reader Perri Silver]

Car alarms — still annoying!

Spotted last evening on East Seventh Street and Avenue C…

Photo by Corinna Lindenberg via Facebook...

Ess-a-Bagel is moving down the block

[Image via]

News broke on Friday via the Town & Village Blog that Ess-a-Bagel was being forced out of its longtime home on First Avenue at East 21st Street. The 39-year-old bagel favorite apparently did not get its lease renewed.

However, according to a statement that the landlord's reps sent us: "Ess-A-Bagel’s owners repeatedly refused to meet us between their below-market rent and current market value."

In any event, it appears that Ess-a-Bagel already has a new space lined up ... based on this tweet sent Saturday...

Don't worry fans of Ess-a-Bagel's 1st Ave location, our delicious hand rolled bagels are just moving down the block!! #NYC'sBest=EssaBagel

— Ess-A-Bagel, Inc. (@EssABagel) January 17, 2015

A tipster with knowledge of the situation here also told us about the move.

The landlord, L&M Development Partners, reportedly already has a Bank of America and Tower Bagels fitted for the current Ess-a-Bagel space.

As for Ess-a-Bagel's new space, perhaps it will be the former home of The Frenchmen.

Updated 1:56 p.m.

Gothamist notes that the Ess-A-Bagel owners have yet to sign the lease at the new location.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Report: Landlord forcing Ess-a-Bagel from its longtime home (46 comments)

Sunrise where the Domino Sugar Refinery stood for nearly 135 years

EVG reader Daniel Root was walking in East River Park Saturday morning.

"Afterward I was thinking how I had never seen that sunrise [there] before and it occurred to me that the reason I hadn’t seen it is the now demolished and missed Domino Sugar Refinery was in that gap."

Indeed...


[Photo from 2013 by Bobby Williams]

The demolition of the circa-1880s building with the iconic Domino sign was complete in late December.

Some day the whole mega-project will look like...



Head to Curbed for more details about all this.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Bombing the Domino Sugar Refinery

At the Domino Sugar Refinery

6 minutes of the East Village from a 1986 housing crisis documentary

Here's part of the neighborhood as seen in the 1986 documentary "There's No Place Like Home: Housing Crisis, USA."

In rain, concern grows for famed Avenue A ice sculpture

There was talk of buying bags of ice at Key to stack around the sculpture to preserve it from the rain and above-freezing temps.

But it was just talk, as it sometimes is.

Also, the hydrant is in front of 79 Avenue A at East Fifth Street if the city/FDNY is reading...

Previously

Gas problem temporarily closes Thai Terminal

We heard from a reader the other day that Thai Terminal on East 12th Street was mysteriously closed... don't know if this sign has been up the whole time... anyway, it notes that a gas problem has kept the restaurant between First Avenue and Second Avenue from opening.

Hopefully this problem won't linger as it did for East Village Thai on East Seventh Street.

Thanks to EVG reader Greg Masters for the photo!

Avenue A ice sculpture growing in size, stature

Near East Fifth Street... Photo by Grant Shaffer

Previously

Report of a fire at 85 First Ave.

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

The FDNY came out in force around 1:30 to respond to a fire at 85 First Ave. just north of East Fifth Street (at the location of the former wine shop Tinto Fino).

MAN ALL HANDS 85 1 AVE,

— FDNY (@FDNY) January 17, 2015

The FDNY had things under control in about 10 minutes…

MAN ALL HANDS 85 1 AVE, 1 FRL AWNING, UNDER CONTROL

— FDNY (@FDNY) January 17, 2015

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

No word on the cause or the extent of the damage. There weren't any reports of injuries. And the fire didn't seem to have any impact on Three of Cups next door… which remained open.

This is the second reported fire along this stretch of First Avenue this past week. There was a basement fire at 133 E. Fourth Street at First Avenue on Tuesday morning.

A new mural on 12th and C that addresses gender-based street harassment

Brooklyn-based illustrator/painter Tatyana Fazlalizadeh created a new mural yesterday on East 12th Street at Avenue C ...



It's part of her ongoing project titled "Stop Telling Women to Smile," where, as the Huffington Post describes it, "Fazlalizadeh places portraits of women in public spaces, encouraging victims of gender-based street harassment to fight back."



Find more of her work on her website. And here's more about Fazlalizadeh in the Times last year ... and NPR in 2013.

Thanks to Robert Galinsky for the photos...

[Updated] Win tickets to see Marky Ramone tonight

Here is the latest clue via @MarkyRamone to the whereabouts to that golden ticket...

#NYC scavenger hunt winner still up for grabs! Find my book & win tix to my show 1/17 @GramercyTheatre MIght be here: pic.twitter.com/GSq2nG1U1i

— Marky Ramone (@MarkyRamone) January 15, 2015

Updated 1:18 p.m.

We're told that someone has claimed the tix…

Gag reflex

Jersey City's Vomitface continues their Monday night residency at Cake Shop on Ludlow Street this coming Monday ... here they are with "Sloppy Joes" ...

EV Grieve Mourning Edition

[Avenue A and St. Mark's Place]

Phase 1 of Essex Crossing revealed, and with concerns of overcrowding (Curbed)

A new development opportunity for Delancey at Clinton (BoweryBoogie)

Report: High-opportunity neighborhoods in NYC are losing affordable housing (NYU Furman Center)

Cyclist fatalities spiked in 2014 (Gothamist)

The hawks escort a surprise visitor out of Tompkins Square Park (Gog in NYC)

You can buy a T-ahirt to help support Tompkins Trees (Our Nature)

Staff revolt for unpaid wages at Food & Wine on Irving Place (Eater)

Go see something at Under St. Marks Theatre, 94 St. Mark's Place (Under St. Marks)

About the sale of 430 E. 10th St. between C and D (The Observer)

Henry Street Playhouse turning 100 (The Lo-Down)

Revisiting the Rivington School (Flaming Pablum)

When Keith Haring did animation for "Sesame Street" (BoingBoing)

RIP Kim Fowley (Pitchfork)

... and when did Zoltar get his oil lamp back outside Gem Spa????


[Photo by Goggla]

Remembering Jodie Lane, who died on this date in 2004

[Photo by Todd McCraw via Facebook]

Reposted from Jan. 16, 2014

Jodie Lane was a 30-year-old doctoral candidate at the Teacher’s College at Columbia University. During the late afternoon of Jan. 16, 2004, Lane, who lived on East 12th Street with her boyfriend, was walking her dogs. She was electrocuted on a snow-covered Con Edison junction box on the southwest corner of 11th Street at First Avenue.

The street was named in her honor in the spring of 2005. Former Councilmember Margarita Lopez joined Lane's family and friends for the street co-naming ceremony.

"The name of Jodie Lane is going to be there forever," Lopez said, "for Con Ed to remember what they did — that they didn’t care about the residents of New York City — and for it not to happen again."

As The Villager reported:

The young therapist’s death horrified the city, and brought heightened awareness to the problem of stray voltage leaking from street fixtures. With pressure from Lopez, Con Ed agreed to do annual stray-voltage inspections for all street lampposts and other electrified street fixtures.

In November 2004, ConEd agreed to pay Lane's family more than $6.2 million and to set up a $1 million scholarship fund in her name at Columbia.

Read more about the Jodie S. Lane Public Safety Foundation here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
In Memoriam: Roger M. Lane

[Updated] Report: Landlord forcing Ess-a-Bagel from its longtime home

[Image via]

Ess-a-Bagel, which has anchored the corner of First Avenue and East 21st Street since 1976, is being forced out of its longtime home.

According to Sabina Mollot at the Town & Village Blog, none of the restaurants on that corner — Ess-A-Bagel, Grill 21 and Rose Restaurant — are getting their leases renewed.

Per the article:

David Wilpon, the owner of Ess-A-Bagel said the longtime bagel joint may be moving somewhere close by but it’s nowhere near a done deal. “There’s a lot that’s up in the air,” he said, adding that he’s still holding out some hope of staying put. He’s also requesting a holdover and is in the midst of negotiations.

Wilpon said the trouble with his lease started when his aunt, Florence Wilpon, who’d founded the businesses in 1976, died. This was in September, 2013 during the midst of negotiations for a renewal. After that, while the family was dealing with the will and related issues, “They claimed we weren’t getting back to them in a timely fashion.”

The landlord, L&M Development Partners, reportedly already has a Bank of America and Tower Bagels fitted for the Ess-a-Bagel space.

And this sounds familiar: "Wilpon chalked up the impending closure as part of the pattern of the city’s landlords preferring to oust mom-and-pops in the hopes of getting a corporation that can pay more."

Head over to the Town & Village Blog for more details.

There's a second Ess-A-Bagel at 831 Third Ave. in Midtown East.

Updated 6:08 p.m.

A spokesperson for East 21 Retail LLC sent us the following statement:

"When we purchased the property, our main priority was to keep Ess-A-Bagel as a tenant. Ess-A-Bagel is a tradition in this city and we had no desire to see them leave. In the three years since, we’ve bent over backwards to come to a mutually fair agreement with Ess-A-Bagel’s owners. Our offer would have allowed Ess-A-Bagel to remain — and even gave them the option to expand — in the space they are in currently. Unfortunately, it takes two sides to make a deal, and Ess-A-Bagel’s owners repeatedly refused to meet us between their below-market rent and current market value.

We regret that Ess-A-Bagel chose to misrepresent our intentions in the press. We take our responsibility as landlords very seriously and worked diligently to keep Ess-A-Bagel as a tenant. At a meeting in September, Ess-A-Bagel confirmed they were actively negotiating a lease at a new location. We wish them the best of luck in all their future endeavors."

H/T Brian Van

Your chance to help create a Community Gardens District

[EVG file photo of Orchard Alley on East 4th Street]

Community Board 3 (CB3) member Bill LoSasso, who's a community gardener, passed along the following letter...

As you may know, a Coalition has formed to pursue permanence of the community gardens within the boundaries of CB3. Our community has an wonderful abundance of community gardens which provide numerous environmental, ecological, cultural, social, historical, aesthetic, and economic benefits, and more, to our neighborhoods.

If you believe that these gardens are valuable assets to our community that deserve every type of protection possible, please take 20 seconds to sign the petition below as we pursue the cause of having all gardens declared parklands and designated as part of a designated Community Gardens District. Once designated as parklands, it would take an act of the New York State legislature to alienate the land for a use other than open space.

Help preserve community gardens right here.

And here are more details from the petition...

CB3 is the birthplace of community gardens in New York City and New York State. In 1973, the first garden was established in CB3 by local activists who worked to reverse years of decline and neglect by public and private property owners.

At one time, there were 57 registered community gardens in CB3, and dozens more operating independently. As the neighborhood evolved, however, numerous gardens were bulldozed as development proceeded.

Today, there are still 46 community gardens located in CB3 — the highest density in New York City. Community Board 3 has been strengthened by the history of its community gardens, which provide environmental, cultural, aesthetic, ecological, economic, and artistic benefits to this community, and more.

Let's take a look at Seven East Village, the new luxury condos now for sale at 7th and D

Sales are now underway at 277 E. Seventh St., the luxury condos near Avenue D now going by Seven East Village ... complete with this for the branding — the shirtless, bearded guy riding a (Citi?) Bike on First Avenue at St. Mark's Place (inexplicably standing in for East Seventh Street)...



Curbed swung by the kick-off event (we were not invited!) the other night (where they raffled off a Vespa!). You can head over there for a lot of photos of the model units and people in suits and stuff.

So far, just two of the six units are on the market, including Penthouse B ($2.05 million).

Let's take a look at the OMG listing from the gang at Nest Seekers (the official building site is here):

Penthouse B spans its own private floor and encompasses more than 1,300 Square Feet. With direct and exclusive entry via your own private keyed elevator entrance, you are welcomed to a grand living room with 12 feet of southern facing, fully-collapsible, floor-to-ceiling windows that open onto a generous balcony. Wide-plank, Forest Stewardship Council white oak floors grace the home throughout.

The kitchen, a piece of art in its own right, boasts Italian crafted cabinetry, waterfall countertops, and appliances from Bertazonni and Fisher & Paykel. The master bedroom, with an en-suite bath and its own terrace, is its own paradise.

The second bedroom is equally as large with great closet space. Each feature one-inch thick windows made of sound-attenuating thermal high performance glass. The spacious baths includes custom Italian vanities, radiant heated floors, Porcelanosa tiles, a frameless shower and Zuma Collection soaking tub. The home is fit with built-in speakers, a 3-zone climate control system, and washer/dryer. The roof deck is complete with a state-of-the-art electric grill, a Caesarstone countertop, sink, and Ipe wood cabinets, along with spacious dining and entertaining space.

Let's look at some photos from this unit...









Looks nice!

Of course, it seems like a lot of the neighbors already hate this building given the incessant noise from construction. Which may be why Curbed's correspondent overheard this at the event:

A woman on the street yelling, "Hey! Look! Assholes moving to the neighborhood!" at the people on the second floor Juliet balcony.

Previously on EV Grieve:
277 E. 7th St. condos rebranded 'Seven East Village,' and will feature a bike-sharing program (23 comments)

Random shirtless, bearded guy on a bike now helping market luxury condos at 277 E. 7th St.

The next sliver of space for development: The parking lot at 277 Seventh St.

Seventh Street parking lot destined to become 6-floor apartment building

Arrow Bar has closed on Avenue A

The subterranean space with a good happy hour at 85 Avenue A between East Fifth Street and East Sixth Street recently called it quits…



The bar, owned by two former employees of Pianos on Ludlow Street, had a pretty good run here (what was it — 7 years?). One tipster told us the closure wasn't rent related, rather business was off and management couldn't make it work anymore.

There isn't mention of the closure on the bar's website or Facebook page.

The rent is due at the former Back Forty

[Image via]

Back Forty rather abruptly shut down after service on Dec. 21.

Chef and owner Peter Hoffman told Eater that "a difficult landscape and lease uncertainty" led to the decision to close the 7-year-old restaurant at 190 Avenue B near East 12th Street.

The space is now for rent.

Meanwhile, several readers noted that there are "three day rent demand" flyers hanging on the storefront.

There are two. One for the "north store," where the total due rent is $7,800.84 ($3,942 a month) for "rent due and owing" ...


[Photo via Tania Vargas]

... and at the "south store," the total rent due is $11.001.12 ($5,500.56 a month) ...



So if our counting is any good... total rent for the space was $9,442.56. Curious what the landlord wanted to jack up the rent to... if a seemingly popular place like Back Forty couldn't make a go of it anymore...