Delicious Korean gastropub Barn Joo has relocated from a few blocks up Broadway to Union Square West and the old Heartland Brewery site. Try it out. Very tasty.
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2017.
Reminder: the co-op’s annual meeting takes place on Monday, January 30, at 7PM at the International Seafarer’s House, 123 East 15th St. second floor (take the stairs to the right of the entrance for easiest access).
The New School, has picked up 34-42 West 14th St, a five-story, 180,000 square foot building, for $153 million.
The seller was Samson Associates and the sale closed on Jan. 10, according to the Commercial Observer. Samson had owned the property since 1985. The building’s tenants will remain and pay rent to the school until their leases expire but those leases won’t be renewed. The school will take over space over time and convert it to academic uses. The building has about 25k SF of ground-floor retail space and comes with additional air rights.
Note that price: $153 million.
An urban planner who has been looking around for ways to make the city more pedestrian-friendly (and to open up more space for protesting) wrote “Union Square could be greatly enhanced by following through on a 2010 plan to pedestrianize Union Square West. Also pedestrianizing University Place would be a bold step that could link Union Square and Washington Square Park, merging two vital public spaces into a permanent platform for open expression.”
That would certainly change the neighborhood.
Interesting….”Long regarded as a leader in New York’s fine-dining world, Danny Meyer is making moves into the casual ranks of the city’s culinary scene. The restaurateur’s Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG), which encompasses a range of high-price dining spots such as the Michelin-starred Gramercy Tavern and the Modern, is investing in Joe Coffee, a New York-based coffee chain with 13 locations in the city and two in Philadelphia.”
“Historically we’ve had the privilege of investing in some incredibly special companies whose cultures, leaders, and innovative business models caught our eyes, and Joe is no different,” said Danny Meyer, Chief Executive Officer of Union Square Hospitality Group. “USHG has had a meaningful relationship with Joe Coffee and founder Jonathan Rubinstein for many years, both as avid fans of their coffee bars and also having served their coffee at Union Square Events for years. We chose to make this investment with Joe Coffee because they are dedicated to the pursuit of making flawless coffee, are led by passionate and exceptional management, and share the same hospitality values as USHG.”
“We are incredibly proud and humbled that USHG and its affiliates have chosen to invest in Joe,” said Jonathan Rubinstein, Co-Founder and President of Joe Coffee. “Danny Meyer is a leader I have admired my entire professional career and to have the opportunity to partner with him and his outstanding team at Union Square Hospitality Group is a dream come true. With this new funding, we will continue to do what we love – roast, brew, and serve the best quality coffee with genuine hospitality – and now we are excited to bring Joe to even more great communities across the country.”
The upcoming Union Square Sweat Fest, February 7 through 15, will feature lots of deals for fitness classes, workout gear, cosmetics, and more from around the neighborhood. Click on the link to learn more.
Two silhouettes of young sporty man and woman warming up outdoors at sunset. Fitness or running workout outdoors
The corner of 4th Ave. and 13th St. will soon be the home of the latest outpost of Sandwicherie, which makes…sandwiches. The fast casual dining revolution continues.
Vanity Fair reports:
A month after its opening, the new Union Square Café is booming. With two bars, an extensive mezzanine, and two spaces for private dining, it holds 198, as opposed to the 152 it could accommodate on 16th Street. Some of the old art is on the walls, and the menu, though revised, still includes the bibb and red-oak-leaf lettuces salad and the tuna burger (now the 19th Street Yellowfin Tuna Burger). It also features a New York strip steak with marrow mashed potatoes and radish salad, which two women friends, on separate evenings, pronounced the best they had ever eaten. On one of those nights, I had the roasted pork rack with shell beans, kale, and fennel-apple mostarda, which was choice. The other time I chose the very rich, very satisfying pappardelle with duck and chanterelle sugo, Brussels sprouts, and winter squash. For any and every meal I would recommend for dessert the pumpkin-bread pudding with caramelized white-chocolate ice cream, because it is unforgettable and unmatchable.
Like its sister restaurant, Gramercy Tavern, only two blocks away, Union Square Cafe now stays open straight through from noon to 10 P.M. The sharp, better-paid staff, still warm and welcoming, now wear white shirts, open at the neck
Reading International has announced he closing of construction finance facilities totaling US $57.5 million to fund the non-equity portion of the anticipated construction costs of its redevelopment of 44 Union Square in New York City. It’s the historic building at the corner of 17th and Union Square East that is historically known as Tammany Hall.
The redevelopment of 44 Union Square will add approximately 23,000 square footage of rentable space to the current square footage of the building for an approximate total of 73,322 square feet of rentable space, inclusive of anticipated BOMA adjustments and subject to lease negotiations and the final tenant mix.
DNAinfo Reports:
A 31-foot-tall sculpture resembling a stick of pink rock candy will rise on the plaza at 14th Street and Union Square East this fall, officials said.
The installation — dubbed “Rose Crystal Tower” and designed by renowned glassblower Dale Chihuly — will consist of a 22-foot structure made of glass-like resin sitting on top of a nine-foot base, according to Parks Department representatives.
The department is looking into whether it will be possible to use power sources in the area to light the sculpture from the inside, according to Jennifer Lantzas, deputy director of public art for the agency.
The tower will consist of numerous layers of pink crystals stacked on top of each other to create a column, according to early renderings.
The resin which Chihuly is using in place of his usual glass materials will be hard enough to withstand breakage, according to Dale Lanzone of Marlborough Gallery, which is sponsoring the Union Square installation.
“You could throw a rock at it or really do whatever you wanted to break it and it’s not going to break,” he said at Community Board 5’s Parks and Public Space Committee meeting Monday.
This will be Chihuly’s second public exhibition in the city, coming on the heels of an installation in the New York Botanical Gardens that will debut in April. It will be displayed from October 2017 until October 2018.
Chihuly, who sports a distinctive eye patch stemming from a glassblowing accident, is known for his creations that range from flora and fauna to abstract designs that have helped turn glassblowing into an avante-garde artform, Lanzone said.
“In the world of glass, he really invented the art form,” Lanzone said. “Chihuly is synonymous with glass sculpture.”DN
Our building (c. 1940)
