Circuit City Space to House Best Buy

The original branch of Crunch Fitness on East 13th St., which closed three years ago and has been vacant since, will become a new branch of Revolve Fitness, a spinning studio.

Union Square-14th Street continues to demonstrate incredible resilience with strong signs that the district will not
only continue its upward trajectory but also thrive as one of the City’s best neighborhoods to live, work, and invest in. In this report, we outline the neighborhood’s key advantages and highlight the positive indicators of continued economic growth and success.

Among Union Square’s many advantages is its function as a true “15-minute neighborhood,” with its wealth of local amenities and resources accessible within walking distance or a short bike ride. The draw of Union Square’s diverse retail, food, culture, health, and entertainment offerings, and Union Square Park, its crown jewel, produced positive outcomes with foot traffic and spending reaching near pre-pandemic levels.

Microsoft has leased 150K sf across 10 floors at The Bromley Companies’ 122 Fifth Avenue. The building is undergoing a complete renovation of its commercial and retail spaces, which also welcomed Allbirds to the ground floor in March 2022.

∫ The Zero Irving Tech Center made headlines as its first commercial tenants, Melio (25K sf), and Sigma (15.5K sf), signed leases in the state-of-the-art building, which is ontrack to open in 2022.

∫ NYU announced plans to relocate the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service to its formerly administrative
office space at 105 East 17th Street. It plans to open to its 864 students and 200+ faculty members in Fall 2024.

∫ Longtime district partner Barnes & Noble unveiled Union Square & Co, the name for a new subsidiary of Sterling
Publishing, further reinforcing the strength of the Union Square brand and neighborhood identity.

∫ Over 80K sf of retail space has been leased since 2020 to national brands, such as Allbirds and Sephora, and
newcomers, such as Rookie and Modern Age, who chose Union Square to locate their flagship storefront.

With over 76,000 residents and 145,000 employees within a 1/2 mile radius, Union Square remains one of NYC’s most desirable places to live and work.

∫ Its 2:1 employee to residential population and significant population density, 24% higher than Manhattan, make Union Square a true mixed-use neighborhood, supported by a diverse array of commercial businesses, retail, and restaurants.

∫ Union Square is comprised of 32.5% owner-occupied
housing, which is well above Manhattan’s 24%.

See the entire report here. 

BodyRok, which offers Pilates-centric workouts with names like “Buns and Guns,” has arrived at 110 University Place. Ironic that it’s in the former location of Stromboli Pizza.

There will be another messy and smelly street fair on University Place on August 8.

A sign of the times. The long abandoned Zen Palate restaurant on Union Square West has been stripped of its copper facade as high as human hands can reach. Copper scavengers on the prowl.

One of New York City’s top sushi chefs is back with her well-received omakase pop-up. Oona Tempest will revive Sushi by Bae next month — except this time it will be a permanent sushi counter in Union Square.

Sushi by Bae initially began as a sister pop-up to David Bouhadana’s proliferating Sushi by Bou back in 2017, and the idea is similar here. She’ll open a six-seat counter at 118 East 15th St., near Irving Place, on May 1, with a Sushi by Bou to open at the counter’s other six seats later in the month.

Sushi by Bae will follow a timed format, with a 90-minute, 15-course Edomae-style omakase, priced at $110. Diners can expect pieces of fish sourced from both Japan and the U.S. like a Japanese sea bream aged in kelp, cuttlefish, rosy seabass, and Hokkaido uni, though the menu will constantly evolve, Tempest says. Joshua Batista, who has worked with Sushi by Bae partner Simple Venue for a while, will lead the beverage program, which includes cocktails — an unusual element for omakase.

Tempest’s Sushi by Bae brand began as a pop-up inside Bouhadana’s Sushi by Bou within Meatpacking’s Gansevoort Market in 2017. Tempest, 26, was an apprentice of the late chef and respected NYC sushi master Toshio Oguma, working under him at acclaimed Upper East Side restaurant Tanoshi Sushi.

Though she’s most recently spent time at high-end, pricey sushi counters like Shoji at 69 Leonard Street and Sushi Ginza Onodera, she aims to keep things more casual at her own restaurant. She plans to follow Oguma’s philosophy in that it shouldn’t cost New Yorkers “an arm and a leg to have good sushi,” she says, one of the reasons she’s pricing the 15-course menu at $110 — to make it “more accessible.”

Sushi by Bae is located in the same space as sports bar Sidebar, though it has a separate entrance. It’ll be open from Tuesday to Saturday with three seatings per night, at 6 p.m., 7:30 p.m., and 9 p.m. Reservations are now open.