New Neighbor on University
The building that will replace the former D’Agostino’s supermarket (and later Agata and Valentina) at 64 University Place has been revealed.
Similar Posts
From Croissants to Hand-Pulled Noodles on 13th
Patisserie Fouet on 13th St. is gone, and now we know what will be next in the space:
After more than a decade serving noodles at Smorgasburg and two years running Noodle Lane in Park Slope, Lane Li and Chris Wang are opening the 40-seat bistro Rulin. The specialty will be Chinese knife-shaved and hand-pulled noodles — like dan dan mian with pork, Sichuan vegetables, and scallions — and a signature “Rulin” noodle served with mustard greens and chicken broth.
Closure of Nearby Benefits Center Clears Things Up
The city has closed the welfare benefits center at 12 West 14th St. This news matters to us because for many years, benefits seekers have mistakenly arrived at our building, 12 East 14th St., in search of services. It was confusing all around but is confusing no more.14th St. Tech Hub Lands $120 Million
Demolition of the building which a PC Richard & Son store occupied at 124 E. 14th St. will begin immediately followed by construction of a 21-story, mixed-use office building that will house the new Union Square tech hub. Suffolk Construction will be the project’s general contractor.RAL Development Services in a joint venture with Junius Real Estate Partners closed a $120 million construction loan from Bank OZK. Junius is a real estate investment unit of J.P. Morgan Private Bank, a division of J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Its focus is high yielding real estate equity and debt investments.
The developers also signed a 99-year ground lease with the New York City Economic Development Corporation. The New York Post reported the joint venture has agreed to the following arrangements: It made an up-front payment of $5 million and will not pay rent for the first three years during construction and lease-up. Afterwards the annual base rent will be $2.3 million for the first five years. The rent will then increase by 2% every year through the 30th year. Following this period, the rent will be subject to fair market resets. A spokesperson for RAL confirmed these financing terms with GlobeSt.com.
Last year, the city council approved the tech hub following New York City’s ULURP process. The steps were required to increase the as-of-right building height from 14 floors to 21 stories.
For 25 years, RAL will lease six of the floors to the non-profit Civic Hall, which will create a digital training center, a tech incubator, co-working spaces, event spaces and an urban food hall. RAL will lease the top 14 floors of the 21-story building at market rate. According to the RFP issued by NYCEDC, the tech hub is expected to create over 500 jobs in Union Square.
Josh Wein, financial director of RAL, says, “In addition to the multitude of benefits this development provides for the City and its workforce, which have been designed to promote job creation and growth in the technology sector, we’ll be creating the finest modern office building in Midtown South.”
Community groups including the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (now named Village Preservation) advocated for neighborhood protections to accompany approval of the tech hub. They supported the educational and public goals of the project but protested its development without inclusion of rezoning for surrounding neighborhood streets. They requested limited heights for new developments, removal of current incentives for hotel and dorm development, and the inclusion of affordable housing with new construction for a limited area around the center.
The neighborhood organizations expressed they were concerned about an eventual destruction of the unique character the Village—starting with its now being referred to as Midtown South.
