This building at 300 Lafayette will be getting some company.
As The Wall Street Journal noted yesterday, a joint venture of Madison Capital and Vornado Realty Trust have plans for a 6-story mixed-use building on that sliver of space between Broadway and Crosby...
Here's a rendering of the project looking toward the east on Houston near Broadway... (the Landmarks Commission signed off on this design back in 2013)...
The glass building will have about 11,500 square feet of retail space on the first and second floors with 22,751 square feet of high-end office space on floors three to six. In addition, the building will have an outdoor terrace. The developers hope to complete the building by mid-2018.
While this project had been in the works for years, Madison and Vornado just closed on the $25.8 million purchase of the site from the New York City Economic Development Corp. last Friday. Part of the space had used by the the MTA to park emergency vehicles.
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.
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 ...
"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.
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."
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.
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...
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.
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?)...
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.
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.
