14th St. in Photos

 

from 6sqft:

Pioneering food hall operator Urbanspace is opening its latest outpost at Union Square reports the NY Post. They’ve leased 10,000 square feet at Zero Irving, the contested tech hub on 14th Street that will serve as office space, a technology training center and incubator, co-working spaces, and an event space when it opens in the first half of 2021.

Located at 124 East 14th Street, at the former site of the P.C. Richard & Son building, Zero Irving has faced opposition for years, as local preservationists and community groups felt that the rezoning required for the development should have included protections for the surrounding neighborhood, which is largely low-rise and residential.

Nevertheless, the $200 million project has been under construction for the past year. Despite the thousands of small business closings around the city, UrbanSpace founder and president Eldon Scott is confident in what will be his company’s fifth food hall in New York City. “We have the ideal business model to help the New York culinary world recover,” he told the Post.

UrbanSpace’s other locations are Urbanspace Vanderbilt near Grand Central (the first location, which opened in 2015), Lexington Avenue and 51st Street, 135 West 50th Street, and 152 West 52nd Street. They’re also behind the holiday markets in Grand Central, Union Square, Columbus Circle, and Bryant Park, as well as seasonal food market pop-ups like those at Madison Square and the Garment District.

Next week, 03/18/2013 – 03/22/2013 mMaterial and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors inside the building. Roof work, work on the new sidewalks around the building, dismantling of the exterior construction hoist and related exterior building work will also continue. Take-down of the 14th Street sidewalk shed will begin this week and will be followed by continued site work on 14th Street.

The following week, 03/25/2013 – 03/29/2013 material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors and roofs. Sidewalk work and dismantling of the exterior construction hoist and related exterior work will also continue. Site work on 14th Street will continue.

The site will be open this weekend for continued hoist removal related activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City.

This year’s annual shareholder meeting will take place virtually on October 12. Watch your mail and e-mail for log-in details.

There was a rumor that leading restauranteur Danny Meyer wanted to run the new restaurant to be established in the Union Square Park pavilion. Not true, says Meyer, but he will be taking over the cursed Wakiya space in the Gramercy Park Hotel and establishing an Italian restaurant there.

From the NY TIMES:

As bikes abound and roads grow narrower, New York can seem to be turning its back on cars. The rapid disappearance of gas stations may not be helping things either.

Parking garages are befalling similar fates, which may not be that surprising: Often humdrum, and built for function, they rarely seem to be the focus of preservation efforts, and developers have long eyed their sites for their potential.

But in Greenwich Village, two garages are being incorporated into condo developments, at 12 East 13th Street, with eight units, and 17 East 12th Street, with nine.

On East 13th, near Fifth Avenue, DHA Capital and Continental Properties are at work on a garage once used mainly by Hertz, the rental car company, which also had a ground-floor office. With eight floors, the garage was built in 1930, before modern zoning laws were imposed on the low-slung area, limiting height.

Indeed, had the developers torn down the garage and built new, it is doubtful that a new structure could have been as bulky as what is there now, which meant converting was a better option, said Dan Hollander, DHA’s managing principal.

Still, the developers could shift some things around; by shaving off the back of the building and adding that mass to the top, they were able to boost the height to 12 stories.

Other alternations are needed. The windows were not big enough for residential use, so they are being enlarged, as the building also gains a new facade, Mr. Hollander said. But starting with a foundation and walls cut some construction costs on the $75 million project, he added; similarly, the condo will take less time to complete, about 16 months, versus 24 months for ground-up construction.

DHA is also keeping a parking area, but for 11 cars, not 100 as before, and just on the second floor. Residents will drive into the original bay, then a robotic lift will pick up the vehicle and stow it.

Starting at $7.5 million for a three-bedroom, the units went on sale in April, although no contracts had been signed by late June.

An almost identical game plan is being followed on East 12th Street, where Rigby Asset Management is removing walls and floors from the back of the eight-story building to allow it to grow to 11 stories, giving apartments more light and air. There, too, a floor will be kept for parking, on the ground floor, for nine cars; and the same automated apparatus as at East 13th Street will serve as attendant. The nine condos, most of which have four bedrooms, are much pricier, however, starting at $14 million. Sales began at the end of June.

“You get column-free space and tall ceilings,” said Peter Armstrong, Rigby’s managing partner, who previously converted a garage at 73 Wooster Street into a six-unit condo. “You feel like an artist with a blank canvas.”

 

Here’s an update.