New Escalator in Subway Station

UPDATE: JAN 14: Trader John’s has covered up their sign. Apparently the idea didn’t fly past the lawyers.

Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) — Trader Joe’s Co., the operator of specialty grocery stores, sued Gristede’s Foods Inc., alleging the supermarket chain committed trademark infringement by opening a food market in New York called Trader John’s.

Gristede’s is opening the Trader John’s “knock-off food market” three blocks from a Trader Joe’s store in Manhattan, according to a complaint filed Jan. 8 in federal court in New York. The Trader John’s name misleads consumers and diminishes the Trader Joe’s brand, according to the complaint.

“We take seriously any attempt to infringe on our trademark and we are taking the necessary action to stop this particular attempt,” Trader Joe’s spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki said in an e-mailed message.

The lawsuit has no merit, said John Catsimatidis, Gristede’s chief executive officer.

“My name is John and I am a trader so I don’t know what their problem is,” he said in a telephone interview. Gristede’s lawyers haven’t seen the complaint yet, Catsimatidis said. “We’ll see what happens.”

The Trader John’s store at 5 West 14th St. in Manhattan will open Jan. 15, Catsimatidis said.

The Trader Joe’s store is three blocks away at 142 East 14th St. The company has 300 locations in 25 states and Washington. Gristede’s has about 35 shops in the New York area, Catsimatidis said.

Trader Joe’s sent a “cease and desist” letter Jan. 6 to Gristede’s, asking it to “immediately change the name and decor of the infringing store,” according to the company’s complaint.

Carnival, the nightclub atop Bowlmor Lanes, will be transformed into a mini-golf nightclub called The Greenwich Village Country Club in October.

Shanghai Square, the new Chinese restaurant slated to replace Izu/Lemongrass Grill on our 13th St. side has released its menu. First reaction: it’s aggressively boring. There appears to be nothing on it that suggests this will be anything other than another run-of-the-mill Chinese.

Get ready for Hashi Market. This small but growing chain of Japanese markets will open a store at 93 University Place, the former home of Saigon Market and vacant for four years.

Comparing 3rd quarter 2007 to 3rd quarter 2008, real estate prices around here have actually done pretty well, according to the Times.

Neighborhoods that experienced price drops include the Lower East Side and the East Village, where median prices fell 5.5 percent; and Carnegie Hill, where co-op prices decreased 7.2 percent. Median prices in Hamilton Heights and Morningside Heights dropped 30 percent, with sales decreasing to only 19 from 67 in 2007. In Washington Heights, median prices went down 6.3 percent, but the number of sales increased to 24 from 18 in 2007.

The neighborhoods that fared the best through the third quarter included Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue from 59th to 96th Streets, where median prices went up 35 percent. In Lincoln Square, an area between 57th and 72nd Streets from Central Park West to the Hudson River that is home to high-priced apartments in 15 Central Park West and the Time Warner Center, median co-op prices went up 18.6 percent and median condo prices went up 25 percent. Prices also rose in Lenox Hill, where median co-op prices went up 19 percent; and Chelsea, where median co-op and condo prices went up about 6 percent.

Other neighborhoods that experienced increases include Greenwich Village, where median prices for co-ops went up 3.9 percent; Union Square and the Gramercy area, where co-op prices went up 3.3 percent and condo prices went up 2.6 percent; and the Upper East Side, where median co-op prices went up 2.3 percent and condo prices went up 9.1 percent.

From YIMBY.com:
Earlier this month, developer Ranger Properties paid $22,000,000 for two buildings at the corner of University Place and East 13th Street, in the heart of the Village near Union Square. Then EV Grieve reported that longtime stalwart University Place Gourmet had shuttered, along with a Chinese laundry around the corner on 13th Street.

Now plans have been filed to construct a seven-story apartment building on the site at 34 East 13th Street, and Adjmi Architects is designing. There will be six apartments spread across 15,550 square feet of residential space, for a very spacious average unit of 2,591 square feet. They’ll definitely be condos, with just one apartment per floor. Six stories of apartments will be stacked on top of 3,200 square feet of ground floor retail

Amenities listed on the Schedule A include a “private/public” roof deck (maybe there will be both!) and a gym in the cellar.

The 3,300-square-foot property is currently home to three buildings—a four-story apartment building on the corner that has University Gourmet on the ground floor, a single-story building housing a doggy day care, and a three-story apartment building with the laundromat.

Demolition permits have not yet been filed to knock them down.

Before Ranger Properties snapped up the assemblage for $1,100 per buildable square foot, the site hadn’t changed hands since 1980.

However, 34 East 13th Street will seem small compared to the 23-story tower planned one block south at 100 University Place. Harry Macklowe is developing the building, which will stand 309 feet tall and include 52 apartments. Other projects in the hood will also be high-end condos, including 17 East 12th Street and the nearly complete garage conversion at 12 East 13th Street.