NYU’s Massive Rezoning Request

The original location of New York mini-chain Heartland Brewery is slated to close on January 1.  The Post reports that the building at 35 Union Square West has a new owner who is asking for more than the Heartland team can afford to pay.  Owner Jon Bloostein says that when he opened the pub in 1994, the rent was $150,000 a year, but now the new landlord is asking for about $2 million a year.

With the forthcoming 15-month L train shutdown edging closer, the MTA and the city’s Department of Transportation have decided to convert Manhattan’s 14th Street into a busway three months ahead of the April 2019 shutdown.

The two agencies will launch the M14 Select Bus Service on January 6, 2019, in hopes that riders will give it a test-run before the actual shutdown begins. “By implementing the M14 SBS months before we start the L train tunnel repairs, we hope that customers will take the opportunity to try our buses and see how the 14th Street busway can factor into their commutes once we start work fixing the L train tunnel,” said New York City Transit President Andy Byford.

Between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m., 14th Street between Ninth and Third avenues eastbound and Third and Eighth Avenues westbound will be restricted to bus traffic only. The new SBS route will complement the current M14A and M14D buses and combined, the three routes will be able to handle roughly 84,000 passengers per day, notes amNY.

The SBS route will start off with five stops between First and Tenth avenues that match up with subway transfer points and will run every two minutes during morning and evening rush hours. After its initial launch, the SBS route will be extended east to the planned Stuyvesant Cove ferry terminal on the East River to accommodate ferry customers from Brooklyn. This is expected to happen shortly before the beginning on the shutdown.

Rumor has it that the recently departed The Adore on 13th St. will be replaced by another French cafe. More rumors soon.

What’s going on in Union Square this summer? Check here.

Crumbs Bakery on University and 13th has closed…for the second time.

The corner of 4th Ave. and 13th St. is vacant once again.