Our New Neighbor

From the current issue of The Villager:

When Danny Meyer opened the Union Square Cafe 24 years ago, area rents hovered around $8 per square foot. Today comparable space could rent for up to $400 per square foot.

The business dilemma of astronomical rents was one of the issues under consideration on Mon., Nov. 10, at the Union Square Partnership Fall Forum titled, “Spotlight on Commercial Diversity in Union Square.”

A panel of four experts joined moderator William H. Kelley, the Partnership’s director of economic development, in a roundtable discussion of the area’s commercial landscape.

More than 75 residents and local business owners attended the forum in the Union Square Ballroom, in what one participant described as an attempt to “think outside the box and look forward.”

Kelley explained the motivation behind the forum:

“In its heyday, Union Square had this wonderful gathering of mom-and-pop businesses,” he told The Villager. “Recently, the area has become an international gathering of businesses.”

Forum participants debated if this evolution was an inevitable result of growth or if there were there any tools the Union Square area or even city government could employ to create a more stable mix of large and small businesses.

“I think Union Square is fascinating,” said panelist Larisa Ortiz, of Larisa Ortiz Associates and a co-author of “Real Estate Redevelopment & Reuse.” “It’s a model and a template that other cities have followed,” she said, noting the presence of iconic restaurants and the Greenmarket.

According to an examination of gentrification trends by New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, the number of businesses in the Union Square area rose almost 20 percent from 1990 to 2000, and have grown an additional 8 percent since 2000.

Of those businesses, 11 percent represent food services and “accommodations.” The largest number of retail businesses — 23 percent — are clothing and accessory stores.

Ortiz was concerned how the neighborhood could maintain its character when park-fronting property is privately owned and rents are set by overheated market forces.

“Let’s help interesting speciality business and restaurant spaces on the side streets,” she suggested.

To gauge interest in topics for the forum, the Partnership sent out a questionnaire in September to more than 3,500 local residents and businesses. A question asked what the most important issue facing Union Square is.

The survey drew almost 300 responses. Topping the list of concerns, 43 percent of respondents said pedestrian congestion and safety are of primary importance. Another 24 percent believed addressing the neighborhood’s changing character was paramount. Six percent saw completing reconstruction of the square’s north end as important.

This week, the Michelin Guide released its “Bib Gourmand” picks for the upcoming 2015 restaurant guide. The restaurants named on the list demonstrate excellence on a budget (two courses and wine or dessert for $40 or less). The Union Square neighborhood had 7 establishments make the cut, including ABC Cocina, Boqueria, Bread & Tulips, Hill Country Chicken, Laut, Momokawa, and Turkish Kitchen.

Curbed.com is reporting on a terrible HVAC noise problem being caused by the system installed by Vapiano last summer. Watch the video, and you’ll see and hear the problem. Here’s the report:

There’s nothing like a good noise controversy to round out the day, so here’s a tipster’s accusation that University Place chain restaurant Vapiano is destroying neighbors’ eardrums: “For the last seven months, residents of 48 East 13th Street, 107 University Place and 35 East 12th Street have been living with an egregious noise condition created by Vapiano’s HVAC system. Attempts to correct this with the various NYC agencies (DEP, DOB have thus far have not been effective. Vapiano has been issued 3 noise violations thus far by the DEP, has been the subject of TV news coverage (NY1 & Fox5), has been found in violation of the Building Code (twice!) and yet the residents are still subjected to the loud illegal noise levels from early morning to well into the late. This has been going on every day since July 16th of 2010.” Precise! So what do the locals plan to do about it? >> The neighbors have a plan: shame the restaurant via blog, video, and petition. Says our tipster about the video, “there is nothing wrong with your speakers, that’s actually what Vapiano’s HVAC system sounds like. If the noise is too loud and you can’t understand what people are saying just turn up the volume!” Noise wars: on.

The New York Times has a fascinating article about the deli across from the co-op on 13th St., reviewing its history as a Schraftt’s restaurant and talking about the importance of its now destroyed architectural details. But what’s really interesting is the revelation of the first details of what’s going to be built there: a ten-story building with one triplex, three duplexes, and ground floor retail. “As for the apartment house, which is being designed for an owner who bought the site this year, the architect says plans are still in flux but she will probably produce “a contemporary interpretation of the Fifth Avenue apartment houses in the neighborhood” — the same goal of harmony that Schrafft’s sought 70 years ago.”

 

A Greenwich Village parking garage at 12 E. 13th St. between University Place and Fifth Avenue will be transformed into eight large condominiums, in another sign of the city’s booming ultra-luxury market.

The building, which sold for $32 million in 2012, will feature eight apartments—a mix of full-floor units and duplexes—with expected asking prices range from $7.5 million to $28.5 million for the top triplex, according to the project’s developers. Occupancy is expected by the end of 2014.

The project is a joint development by DHA Capital LLC and Continental Properties.

The developers plan to add four more floors to the eight-story building, which was built in 1930. A portion of the rear will be demolished and replaced with the new stories, and it will also receive a new façade with elongated bricks to make the windows wider.

The 10th, 11th and 12th floors will make up one triplex, while all of the ninth and part of the eighth floor will make up a duplex with an asking price of $18 million. The building will be topped by a glass structure being added as part of the 6,000-square-foot triplex penthouse.

The building will feature a 24-hour concierge, an automated parking system, a small gym, individual storage space and street-level retail.

The building is currently undergoing demolition, and reconstruction work will begin in a month or two.

Steven Fisch of Continental Properties, a family business started by his father in 1957, said this was their first joint venture with DHA Capital LLC, and the two groups looked at other properties before deciding on this one.

“One major factor was the size of the block, the location obviously, and the ability to do something very special, to create almost a work of art with full-floor condos,” said Mr. Fisch. “It’s very hard to find a 67-foot-wide building.”

Mr. Fisch said the two groups decided to create an ultra-high-end luxury building rather than smaller, more affordable apartments because there has been very strong demand for this type of housing over the past five years, and a shortage of supply.

He said they also wanted to distinguish themselves from large buildings featuring 150 and 200 apartments.

“It is in a location, and a time in New York City, when this can happen,” said Mr. Fisch.

Richard Cantor, a principal at Cantor-Pecorella, is marketing the condos. Mr. Cantor said none had been sold yet, but the ultra high-end luxury residential market is very strong.

“There’s been a huge uptick in prices in the high end, it’s a very strong market,” said Mr. Cantor.

He said the building doesn’t have a “pretentious” name, and is just known by its address to keep it simple.

The last tenant at the 45,000-square-foot parking garage was Hertz Rental Car, which vacated once its lease expired.

The Hell’s Kitchen restaurant Taboon, which has charmed diners since 2004 with its breads, pizzas and small plates, will soon offer a taste of the Middle East to the NYU crowd.

The owners of the eatery on 10th Avenue and 52nd Street will open a still-unnamed “quick-service” Mediterranean joint at 30 E. 13th St. within the next two months, the realtor for the space announced this week.

The 1,000-square-foot space previously held the Korean restaurant DoSirak, which moved across the street in September and changed its name to BAK Korean Kitchen & Craft Beer Hall.

Fans of Taboon, which New York Times food critic Frank Bruni said put “a deft, sophisticated spin on Middle Eastern food,” will find its new sister restaurant has a similar atmosphere, Kelly Gedinsky of Winick Realty Group LLC said in a statement.