The annual sharehoilders’ meeting will take place on Thursday, October 26th, 2023 at 7:00pm and will be held via Zoom conference call; both audio and video options are available. Please see your e-mail for log in instructions or contact Richard Cacciato, rcacciato@akam.com, if you need the instructions.
Gothamist reports:
A cereal saloon? In Union Square?? In this economy??? Not anymore, I’m afraid: The Kellogg’s NYC cafe, a large windowed box where tourists could pay too much to eat cereal suspended in midair, has closed. “Closed abruptly,” according to Eater, its empty husk reimagined as a holiday pop-up slinging fancy donuts.
The Kellogg’s NYC website confirms the closure: “We are sincerely thankful for the support of all our great guests of this unique cereal experience,” it screams in all caps. “While Kellogg is busy creating the next adventure, the Union Square Space will be open as a White Box space through our partner Co.Create NYC for events.”
If, in turn, you were wondering what a White Box space is, here’s some start-up word salad for you to digest: “The White Box is where brainstorms become brand activations, product innovations become pop-ups, fever dreams become private parties.” (On which most of Union Square would theoretically be able to spy, considering the whole storefront is glass.)
In June of 2016, Kellogg’s NYC opened its first cereal cafe in Times Square, offering tourists bowls of refined carbohydrates for the totally-reasonable-what-do-you-mean price of $6 to $8. The menu had been enhanced by Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar, possibly to justify the price, I guess? Anyway, the venture’s perhaps improbable success prompted a move to a bigger space overlooking Union Square in 2017, a boom year for Instagrammable cereal, for whatever reason. Located at 31 East 17th Street, the new digs were more than five times bigger than the old ones, according to Eater. Kellogg’s dropped prices — $1.50 for your basic bowl of Frosted Flakes (a family-sized box of which currently costs $3.79 at Target) or Special K; $4 for a jazzed-up bowl with toppings — but this more affordable fare does not appear to have done the trick.
Kellogg’s NYC did not address Gothamist’s questions about the reason for the departure, so we can’t say for sure what prompted the closure. Still, a slew of better-established businesses have vacated the neighborhood in recent months and years, typically citing rents rising at wildly unrealistic rates. Coffee Shop shuttered in October 2018, to be replaced by a Chase Bank and by CHLOE. In January, Blue Water Grill closed its doors, a spokesperson for its owner (an actual billionaire) explaining, “Even though this is one of New York’s most successful restaurants, it can’t be successful with a $2 million plus rent.” In 2017, popular eatery Republic announced its impending relocation, due to the mounting financial burden of a Union Square lease, and in 2015, Danny Meyer explained that he had to move his Union Square Cafe because of “untenable rent escalations.”
Meanwhile, demand for Kellogg’s product has reportedly been waning across the board. Without knowing exactly how much it costs to rent a centrally located sky lounge, one designated specifically for the consumption of Frosted Mini Wheats and their ilk, it’s hard to guess at the overhead Kellogg’s NYC faced. It seems reasonable to expect, though, that the rent would be high — too high, even, for Big Cereal to justify?!?! What have we come to??
But take heart, my Froot Loops, because a statement from Kellogg’s suggests the brand isn’t done with you yet:
We have been lucky to have wonderful support from cereal fans and media alike. We are committed to continuing to bring more unique and engaging experiences to Kellogg’s cereal fans in the future. Kellogg has loyal, passionate fans that constantly seek the chance to interact with our iconic brands. We believe this includes in-person experiences that push the imagination and provide unexpected opportunities to experience cereal, something they’ve been connected to their entire lives, in a completely new way. That was our belief when we opened the first café and fans have responded positively and asked for more ever since. Stay tuned for updates on our next chapter!
A court has blocked–for now–the use of the Union Square Park pavilion as a privately run restaurant. “Opponents object to what they see as the privatization of park space and insist the city needs approval from the state legislature before moving forward. The new ruling lets the city renovate the Pavilion and rehabilitate the bathrooms, but halts plans to lease it out for a restaurant.”
Gothamist has links to all the latest news.
The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation has been doing some reconnaissance to find out what exactly developer Billy Macklowe has planned for his new condo building that will replace Village icon Bowlmor Lanes, and what they’ve found has not heartened them: “[The building] will take the form of a short base with retail uses coming out to the streetwall, and a very tall, narrow, residential tower rising above it. At approximately 308 feet in height, this will be one of the tallest, if not the tallest, buildings in the Village. Apparently Mr. Macklowe has told elected officials that the building will be limestone rather than glass or steel
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Next week (January 9 to January 13), Superstructure work will continue at and 2nd , 3rd and 4th floor levels. The sidewalk shed along 14th Street has been opened and we will begin working on the side walk shed along 5th ave.
The following week (January 16 to January 20), we will continue superstructure concrete and slabs on 2nd , 3rd and 4th floor levels. The weekend of Saturday 1/14/12 we will be installing a new crane that will service the site for the duration of the job.
This weekend the site will be open on Saturday, January 7th, for superstructure related activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City. To control noise levels within the site, work activities will be limited to the placement of formwork and concrete, plumbing and electrical work, rebar for concrete placement, using the crane and equipment to support all activities. Safety horns are used, and required by law, to coordinate lifting with the crane and to alert the workers of the danger overhead. We have directed the operators to limit the use of horns to one short sounding and to use the crane later in the day so as to avoid any excess noise.
