Beware of the budding sinkhole that nearly swallowed an M8 on St. Mark's Place

@evgrieve have you seen the bus that opened up the earth on st marks? pic.twitter.com/t631XstZFL

— EdenBrower (@edenbrower) May 26, 2016

This happened at Avenue A.

The bus is gone now, @edenbrower reports... but the potential for sinking remains...

[Updated] 1 dead, 3 injured following shooting at the Irving Plaza

Multiple shootings have been reported at a T.I. concert in New York: https://t.co/uwOp7MWz0k pic.twitter.com/VqnGD6HUJs

— Noisey (@NoiseyMusic) May 26, 2016

According to various published reports, one man died and three others were wounded in a shooting at Irving Plaza where rapper T.I. was headlining last night.

A 33-year-old man who was shot in the stomach died at Beth Israel, police sources told NBC 4.

Details from the Daily News:

With the headliner T.I. set to appear, the chaos erupted backstage shortly after 10 p.m., with a fight in a green room above the stage of the Union Square venue, NYPD officials and witnesses told the Daily News.

Hip hop artists Maino and Uncle Murda were performing when the sudden sound of gun shots sent hundreds into a frenzy.

An employee told The News that the carnage started as a beef between two rival crews associated with Maino and rapper Troy Ave. The gunman and the victims were all credentialed guests with access to the VIP area, a source said.

There's one report confirming that Crown Heights-based Troy Ave was shot in the leg. There are unconfirmed reports that the man who died was Troy Ave's manager.

Police say they're investigating how the gun(s) got into the venue on Irving Place at East 15th Street with the metal detectors set up.

Updated noon:

DNAinfo has more here... along with this Bratton quote: "The investigation is moving forward very rapidly and we expect to close it quickly," NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said Thursday during a radio interview on 710 WOR.

Updated 7 p.m.

Police have arrested Troy Ave in the shooting, via Gothamist. His friend and bodyguard, Ronald "Banga" McPhatter, was also confirmed as the fatality in the shooting.

The NYPD also released this surveillance video... showing a man who police ID'd as Troy Ave firing a gun ...



Updated 5/27

Billboard takes a look at the shooting from an insurance/risk-management perspective. A few excerpts:

"The fact of the matter is that [the] shooting took place in a location where a man had a beef and a gun," says Steve Adelman, VP of the Event Safety Alliance and head of Adelman Law Group. "That's obviously not specific to a genre of music, location of the club or much of anything else. It could have happened anywhere where those two criteria exist, including an elementary school, a movie theater or a military base."

And:

Historically, violence at rap shows often occurs in areas where artists and their entourages enter discreetly, such as backstage, VIP areas, green rooms or at off-site afterparties; this may have been the case at Irving Plaza on Wednesday, since talent and crew frequently use the building's smaller entrance on East 15th Street rather than its front doors. Given these areas are relatively exclusive, security is tight as far as access (one must have the proper laminate or sticker), but lax on metal detectors and pat-downs. From the smallest club to the highest-capacity stadiums and festivals, too often "whatever wants to walk in through the back door walks in through the back door," observes Peter Tempkins, managing director, entertainment, for HUB International, a leading insurance brokerage firm covering the live business.

About that for rent sign outside Cucina di Pesce on East 4th Street

[Photo from last week by Derek Berg]

One day last week, EVG contributor Derek Berg noticed that workers had boarded up part of the sidewalk cafe at Cucina di Pesce at 87 E. Fourth St. near Second Avenue.

Then on Tuesday, a for rent sign arrived at that section of the Italian restaurant. An ominous sign perhaps?



Owner Mehenni Zebentout offered an explanation.

"We just gave up the room next door as it belongs to a different landlord — the 89 E. Fourth St. part," he said via email.

The landlord for the space wanted $8,000 a month for what Zebentout said is a tiny room.

"So we decided to do without it," said Zebentout, who also owns the equally low-key Nomad around the corner on Second Avenue. "We have enough room to accommodate about 74 guests."

As for Cucina di Pesce, who will be opening their garden soon, here's what New York had to say about the restaurant:

Cucina di Pesce is the type of unpretentious, comfortably lived-in Italian restaurant that ruled New York before Mario Batali and his ilk turned the town upside-down. But if Cucina's ambience feels a bit dated, its flavors are absolutely contemporary. This is one of the best places in the city to get good Italian food on a budget.

7th Street building residents leaving flyers noting how long they've been without gas for cooking

[Photo Sunday by Steven]

Some residents at 95 E. Seventh St. have been posting flyers noting how long it has been since they've had gas for cooking in this building between Avenue A and First Avenue... (today marks Day 193)...


[Photo Sunday by Steven]

According to public records, the building sold last September for a little more than $6 million. It had been one of the numerous East Village properties owned by Morton Tabak and Co. (This is one of the 16 East Village buildings that Raphael Toledano purchased last fall.)

A resident told us that Brooklyn-based Halt Management is in charge of the building now.

Per the resident: "Our beautiful, late 19th-century tenement has been abused and destroyed during the seven months of construction with the goal of creating 'luxury units' out of the few vacant spaces." (They've also been without a super, per the resident.) There are several complaints on file with the DOB in recent days, including one from last Thursday noting "the walls are cracking and tenants are fearful for their safety."

The resident says that the management company has provided them with hot plates, and that, in total, they've received $150 in rent abatements.


[Reader submitted photo]

Updated noon

An EVG reader shared this photo... festive balloons with the No Gas message...

Rat baiting signs, but not signs of progress at 6th Street and Avenue C

Given the recent arrival of rat-baiting signs on the long-dormant northeast corner of Sixth Street and Avenue C... an EVG reader wondered if this meant plans were moving forward with something.



Well, there has been some activity since the last time we checked in here. The city disapproved updated plans for a five-story building here in February. These updated plans show 9 residences in the floors above space for retail and a community facility, per DOB records. Plans for a six-story building were initially filed in 2012.

So for now, the hole remains the same...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Hole watch 2016: Still no sign of a new building on Avenue C and East 6th Street

Commercial awning arrives for Alphabet City Deli & Grill on Avenue C

Workers have been renovating the former Loisaida Ave. Deli on Avenue C and Fourth Street. The corner market closed back in January, with some pretty cool ghost signage coming into view.

Yesterday, workers brought in the new awning... for Alphabet City Deli & Grill...



The sign notes the shop will sell ice cream, fresh smoothies, hot & cold sandwiches, hookah accessories, cigars, etc.

While there isn't any mention of selling pancakes, the new sign shows a stack of them (and behind bars? Or a grill?)...



Thanks to @artisanmatters for the photo!

Lab 321 rolls out its ice cream signage on St. Mark's Place

[Photo by Steven]

Workers yesterday hoisted the Lab 321 letters on St. Mark's Place, where the rolled ice cream purveyors are setting up shop here between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

Lab 321 will be the third shop to open this year in the East Village serving the traditional Thai street food ... there's Roll It Up on Seventh Street and Pink Bear on East 14th Street.

The previous tenant at 27 St. Mark's Place, The Sock Man, closed in January after a reported rent hike via new landlord Raphael Toledano.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's the rolled ice cream shop taking over the former Sock Man space on St. Mark's Place

[Updated] There is a rabbit on the loose

Via the EVG inbox...

There's a rabbit loose in the air shaft between 1st & 2nd streets between Avenue A and First Avenue. While I am willing to entertain the idea that this is a new species of rabbit, indigenous only to East Village airshafts, this bunny seems too tame, lost and lonely to have lived in the wild for more than a few days."

So, did anyone lose a rabbit?

Updated 5/27
The rabbit has been rescued! But he or she needs a home. Details here.

LGBT craft sale this afternoon in Tompkins Square Park

[Photo by Steven]

These homemade signs arrived in the Park this morning... the sale is from 3:30 to 4:40 outside the Dog Run...

Report: Mount Sinai Beth Israel is closing in 4 years; smaller facility planned for 14th and 2nd

The rumors turned out to be true: Mount Sinai Beth Israel is closing its facility on First Avenue at East 16th Street.

Here's NY1 with the scoop:

"What we are dealing with is an infrastructure that is old, a facility that isn't efficient and it lives in the most competitive environment on planet earth in health care," said Mount Sinai Beth Israel CEO Dr. Kenneth Davis.

The hospital essentially has been on life support for years, losing $250 million since 2012. Now its owner, Mount Sinai Health System, is pulling the plug and announcing plans to close it in four years.

Hospital officials say the closure of the facility is the only option financially. With how treatment is changing Mount Sinai Beth Israel is in an evolve or die situation.

Davis said that only 60 percent of the hospital's 856 beds are used on a daily basis.

Mount Sinai Health System reportedly plans to replace the existing facility by opening a smaller hospital on 14th Street and Second Avenue "with a full-service emergency department and 70 inpatient beds."

According to NY1, Mount Sinai will also expand its Ambulatory Care Center in Union Square.

Meanwhile, Crain's is reporting that hospital officials have placed Gilman Hall, an apartment building it uses to house medical residents, up for sale.

Per Crain's:

The 24-story property, at the corner of East 17th Street and First Avenue, could fetch as much as $80 million.

Citing several anonymous nurses, The Villager reported on May 13 that the hospital would be closing. A Mount Sinai spokesperson would neither confirm or deny the report at that time.

Updated 5 p.m.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the 16th Street facility/property could fetch up to $600 million.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Mount Sinai Beth Israel 'will cut its inpatient capacity' (33 comments)

Report: 300-room hotel planned for East 11th Street

Back in late April, when news broke that the 6-building portfolio of 85 E. 10th St. and 112-120 E. 11th St. had been sold, an EVG commenter with some inside information left the following:

Lightstone will be demolishing the properties on 11th street beginning this year, and plans to develop a hotel there on behalf/with one of its hotel partners— most likely Marriott— to build one of their low-budget "hip" hotels, branded as "Moxy". They will be doing minor refurbishing to 85 East 10th Street, and then will look to unload it. They only bought the property because Pan Am required purchase of 85 E10th as part of the 112-120 E11th deal.

Hope they have an incredible budget for sound-proofing on this new development because staying across from Webster Hall is not the most conducive to the whole "sleeping" experience! Haha.

Yesterday, The Real Deal reported that the East 11th Street buildings between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue will be demolished to make way for a ... 300-room hotel with Marriott International’s Moxy Hotels serving as the brand.

The Lightstone Group paid Pan Am Equities $127 million for the portfolio.

Per TRD:

85 East 10th Street — which represented $75.4 million of the total purchase price — is not going to be part of the project. In fact, Lightstone wants to sell it, and hired a team from Meridian Capital Group to bring the 121-unit, 69,100-square-foot rental building to market.

There are other Moxy properties in the works at 105 W. 28th St. in Chelsea and 485 Seventh Ave. south of Times Square.

Reps for Lightstone haven't filed any new permits yet for the East 11th Street buildings.

Previously on EV Grieve:
6-building complex on East 10th Street and East 11th Street sells for $127 million

Pop-up art show on 6th and A today

A photo posted by Peter Missing (@petermissing) on May 24, 2016 at 3:06pm PDT

Happening today starting at noon on Avenue A and Sixth Street ... at the site of the former Benny's Burritos... Previously