Demolition at 353-357 Broadway?

[londonlawyer]

In the words of the NY Post's Steve Cuozzo, three "dorky" (or as Lofter would say, POS) buildings located at 353, 355 and 357 Broadway are vacant but for a store which is closing in five days (i.e., Dec. 11, 2006). I genuinely hope that they will be razed because they detract from the otherwise beautiful buildings surrounding them. Does anyone have any information?

[lofter1]

There's an old post from July 2004 on 353 Broadway HERE (http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=31418&postcount=39) ...


... developer Ilan Tavor's plan to tear down the two-floor property and replace it with a 20-story apartment tower that would loom above its low-rise neighbors between Leonard and Franklin streets.

The building, designed by Joseph Aliotta of Swanke Hayden Connell Architects, would have 81 apartments.

... The city Department of Buildings rejected the design plan as incomplete.


DOB shows that 353 is a separate property; 355-357 is shown as one property.

No DOB action at 353 since the Disapproved 2004 Application.

No DOB action at 355-357 since 1995.

A store called P S Yarns (http://www.psyarns.com/cgi-shopper/loadpage.cgi/psyarns/ezshopper?user_id=id&file=directions.htm) is at 355 Broadway (according to their website)

I think there are other postings regarding this site -- but so far I can't track them down (darned search feature :mad: )

[londonlawyer]

...A store called P S Yarns (http://www.psyarns.com/cgi-shopper/loadpage.cgi/psyarns/ezshopper?user_id=id&file=directions.htm) is at 355 Broadway (according to their website)...

P.S. Yarns is the store that's closing. This strectch of B'Way and the surrounding streets have long been plagued by dumpy stores, but the buildings there (but for a few P's of S) are incredibly beautiful. Furthermore, the few P's of S, such as PS Yarns, and the 60's dump just up the street which will be razed for a condo, are being eliminated quickly.

[londonlawyer]

The following article was printed in the Dec. 15, 2006 edition of the "Downtown Express." I am elated that the POS building which houses this store will be razed.

"Losing the fabric of Downtown"

By Michele Herman


Until recently, if you needed to buy fabric in Manhattan, you could travel less than a mile in almost any direction and find a store that stocked what you were looking for. There were even three distinct fabric districts, each clustered with long, narrow stores smelling of sizing and cotton, where the person behind the counter with the big shears was likely to be fluent in Butterick, Vogue, McCall’s and Yiddish.


The Midtown district, concentrated at West 39th and 40th Sts., is holding steady. But a few years ago the Lower East Side district on Orchard St. was swallowed in a gulp by boutiques and fromageries. Right now, if you walk down Broadway on the blocks just below Canal St., you can watch the Downtown district disappear before your eyes, one closing sale after another.


Just a week ago P&S, the last great retail fabric store on lower Broadway — arguably in the whole borough — sent out an advance mailer to its customers with sad but inevitable news: its building has been sold, forcing the store to close. P&S is housed in a nondescript mid-block two-story building of the sort known as a “taxpayer,” which for a Manhattan fabric store is a giddy amount of space. Spanning both floors and the deep basement, P&S is Manhattan’s only complete needlework emporium, with a large selection of dress and upholstery fabrics, notions, trimmings, crafts, patterns and even a respectable knitting department. The developer who’s tearing down the building to put up a high rise feels giddy about the space, too, but that’s because it’s the centerpiece of a dream parcel: another two-story tear-down to the south and a landmarked building with transferable air rights to the north.


Mark and Isaac Spiegel, who are brothers, own the store, having taken it over from their father Harry when he died a few years ago. P&S has been at the present location at 355 Broadway just below Franklin St. for 14 years, and elsewhere on the block for another decade before that. The brothers expect to stay open about two more months.


Fabric runs deep in the Spiegel family. “My father’s family, before Hitler came to power, manufactured underwear in Lodz, Poland, which was the textile capital of Europe,” says Mark. When Harry, a Holocaust survivor, came to New York, he got a job as a hat and cap salesman and made a slight vertical move. “My father, may he rest in peace, used to have a cap shop at 656 Broadway. He came down to pick up his material in this neighborhood – corduroys, denims, twills, velvets.”


P&S always sold both retail and wholesale. But until the last seven or eight years, most of the area was largely wholesale, providing much of P&S’s supply. “Most of the people down here had contacts with the mills,” says Mark. “The mills would get an order for 15,000 yards, and there would be a little runover, which they would buy. They would sell the runover to manufacturers for the big houses Uptown, the ones that sold to Macy’s and the chain stores. There were people from Poland, and also from Armenia, Israel, Russia.”


But then a few years ago, most of the domestic mills shut down, drying up the wholesale supply. The Broadway stores survived, at least for a while, by shifting to retail. “My suppliers became my competitors,” says Mark. “It actually made the neighborhood more attractive, because people came down to shop. Where there’s competition, there’s business.”
This nondescript stretch of Broadway, once so well-suited for fabric jobbers with its large basements and easy truck loading, is now, of course, too valuable to support a fabric ghetto. The Spiegel brothers love what they do, but the prospects for relocation are grim. “Years ago they’d offer you a free month’s rent,” says Mark. “Now stores are sitting empty and the landlords don’t want to budge. Across the street they’re asking $1 million rent for the corner store. They’ll get it from a bank; the banks are going for the corners and price is no object. Now it’s just banks, furniture, Duane Reades and Starbucks.


“The beauty of our business is that we have a little of everything and it all works together,” continues Spiegel. “We’re like a supermarket that sells milk and juice and cheeses and cans of tuna. We could move into a much smaller space, but we won’t be able to carry everything, and will have to pay more. The question is: what to give up and how to make up the difference?”


Mark Spiegel, 42, has other questions too. He doesn’t yet know what he and his brother, 44, will do if no viable space turns up. Both have young children. “If it were a good business,” Mark says, “I would like to see the kids take over, but it’s not a growing business. A lot less people have time to sew.”


The Spiegels are observant Jews, as any customer who’s tried to shop after 2 p.m. on a Friday knows. “If we can’t find space, we’ll leave it up to God, and hopefully he’ll send us in the right direction,” says Mark. “We took good care of the employees. We like to treat people the way we like to be treated. We were flexible, and took returns. We have a good name, thank God.”

[antinimby]

Pics?

[lofter1]

Something tells me these (http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_188/losingthefabricof.html) aren't what you were hoping for (but I'll try and take some pics of the building this weekend) ...

P&S fabrics on Broadway is having a closeout sell.

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_188/lot.gif

Owners and brothers Mark, bottom left, and Isaac Spiegel are not sure
what’s next. Mark said he’d like to pass the business on to their children
“but it’s not a growing business. A lot less people have time to sew.”

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_188/ps.gif
Downtown Express photos by Jefferson Siegel

***

[infoshare]

Good one to watch. Looking forward to seeing the photos.:)

[stache]

Owners and brothers Mark, bottom left, and Isaac Spiegel are not sure
what’s next. Mark said he’d like to pass the business on to their children
“but it’s not a growing business. A lot less people have time to sew.”[/LEFT]


Extremely nice people in this store.

[lofter1]

Pics from today of 353-355 Broadway:

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/Tribeca/353Bway_01a.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/Tribeca/353Bway_01b.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/Tribeca/353Bway_01d.jpg

[londonlawyer]

Thanks for posting those, Lofter. Those buildings are true P's O S, as are the ones that will be razed a few blocks north for the new condo. Other than these limited P's O S, this area has REALLY beautiful buildings.

[infoshare]

Pics from today of 353-355 Broadway:

Sweeet pics; thanks. These building are P'sOS: but in this case I think they were intended to be only boxex/place holders called a "tax payer".

Excerpt from the book "Morningside Heights" by A.Dolkart.
"....... the only exceptions are several (taxpayers) on Broadway , one -or - two story buildings erected to generate enough income to permit the owners to pay taxes and other expenses while awaiting a more favorable climate for full-scale development......"

[ablarc]

They’ll get it from a bank; the banks are going for the corners and price is no object. Now it’s just banks, furniture, Duane Reades and Starbucks.
This is a job for zoning.

Where is zoning when you really need it?

[antinimby]

This particular proposal looks very familiar.

I know we talked about this one somewhere here before, some time ago.

Looks like P&S building is both 355 and 357.

http://www.shca.com/images/content/archive/east-newest_Large.jpg

http://www.shca.com/images/content/archive/P1010011_Large.JPG

http://www.shca.com/images/content/archive/south-newest_Large.jpg

http://www.shca.com/images/content/archive/P1010009_Large.jpg

© Swanke Hayden Connell Architects 2004 (http://www.shca.com/portfolio/default.asp?sctId=548&projType=Architecture)

[infoshare]

Looks like P&S building is both 355 and 357.



I think the lots/buildings are 353 and 355 Broadway. Which ever they are; it is great to see that the P&S building will no longer be POS building.:D

Btw, those are great graphicx - thanks for digging them up. Notice the "little" peeps in the elevation views? :cool:

[londonlawyer]

This is great news!

[antinimby]

You know this proposal has been around since 2004?

I wonder what was holding it up all this time.

[lofter1]

The "saddle" at mid-block in the foreground of the model is where another 21-story building is set rise at 369-371 Broadway (http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11517) ...

http://www.shca.com/images/content/archive/P1010009_Large.jpg

[londonlawyer]

What's going on here? Has demolition started? I hate these buildings. I saw an ad in the Times magazine on Sept. 21st and wondered about the status of this project down the street.

When something is built here, I hope that the crappy building with the red awning just south of the project is razed as well.

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/Tribeca/353Bway_01d.jpg

Once this block cleans up, hopefully, the beautiful building on the south corner will have all of those crappy banners removed and will get a better tenant.

[Fabrizio]

That "crappy" building with the red awning looks rather nice.

[londonlawyer]

It's not. I used to work a short walk from there. It has no details whatsoever.

[lofter1]

They have stripped the facades of both the 2-story buildings at 353 / 355 Broadway -- anwnings and all are gone -- and put up some plywood and painted it a dull flat grey. But nothing else seems to be happening.

DOB shows no recent activity.

DOF shows no recent activity.

Both properties (353 Broadway, Block 174 / Lot 35 and 355-357 Broadway, Block 174 / Lot 34) have been owned since the mid-1980s by "Albert Russo".

Here's how they look now:

*

[lofter1]

The beautiful Landmarked neighbor of 353-357 Broadway, 361-363 Broadway (http://www.epicharmus.com/masterpiece/2008/05/71-building-at-361-broadway.html) / 69 Franklin (SW corner Broadway / Franklin), is having its very intricate cast iron facade (http://www.nyc-architecture.com/SOH/SOH061.htm) completely restored. Currently 361 Broadway is covered by scaffolding and undergoing paint removal.

The first three shots below are from last spring when the facade of 361-363 was being analyed. The next two are from July. The last was taken from opposite the building in the middle of the one-block length of Franklin Place (in front of where 5 Franklin Place is going up); it shows the west end of the Franklin Street facade of 361-363.

*

[londonlawyer]

They have stripped the facades of both the 2-story buildings at 353 / 355 Broadway -- anwnings and all are gone -- and put up some plywood and painted it a dull flat grey. But nothing else seems to be happening....

Thanks, Lofter. I wonder if the developer is waiting for the market to turn around.

By the way, what's happening at the John Buck site further down B'Way?

[lofter1]

According to THIS (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=245732&postcount=74) the crew at 281 Broadway / 57 Reade are back on track, but from what I can see by peeking through the cracks in the fence the whole construction site is still a big ugly mud pit. It really looks like the machinery there is sinking into the mire.

Perhaps the economic troubles will save NYC from the horrendous condo plan devised for that site.

Here's what it looked like this week -- and mind you, we've had little to no rain for days ...

(btw: The "Leaner" at 287 Broadway / 55 Reade remains propped up and empty, while the great Cass Gilbert building next door to the south at 279 Broadway is getting a new Capitol One Bank branch in the street level commercial space) ...

*

[londonlawyer]

Thanks for the info.

I would love to see the horrendous building that houses Spaghetti Western to be razed and incorporated into this project. It's disgusting.

[brianac]

Updated On 10/06/08 at 05:41PM

ABS to lease Lower Broadway properties

Real estate brokerage and investment firm ABS Partners Real Estate was tapped to lease a total of 48,500 square feet of retail space within four properties on Lower Broadway in Soho.

The locations, all south of Canal Street, are two, two-story buildings at 355 Broadway and 353 Broadway; a 25-story building at 401 Broadway; and a five-story building at 372 Broadway.

The properties have a total rental value of $3.4 million, the firm said, or about $70 per square foot.

The space is entirely vacant except for a small store at 401 Broadway that is expected to be vacated shortly, said Anand Melwani, an associate at ABS, who is representing 372 Broadway. TRD

http://beta.therealdeal.com/articles/abs-to-lease-lower-broadway-properties

© 2008 The Real Deal

[brianac]

ABS Partners Hired to Handle 4 Major Retail Assignments on Lower Broadway

October 7, 2008

ABS Partners Real Estate has been hired to handle the leasing of four unique properties on Broadway just south of Canal Street. These properties collectively represent over 48,500 sq ft of retail space with an annual rental value in excess of $3.4 million. According to one of the property owners…we hired ABS Partners due to their expertise and depth of market knowledge…our strategy being to lease these excellent locations to quality tenants on a long term basis…

ABS will be leasing the Broadway retail sites at buildings 401, 372, 355 and 353. The unique retail spaces at both 355 Broadway and 353 Broadway are each two story buildings measuring 32’ by 166’ and have a full basements and sub-basements. These buildings can be combined to create one 30,000 square foot Broadway retail building. The ABS team of Jay Caseley, Alan S. Cohen and Ben Waller will be handling this assignment, as well as the northern most store of the group - 401 Broadway. This corner unit of approximately 3,700 square feet with a full selling basement is located within the well know 25 story 250,000 sq ft office building which ABS is also handling. Anand Melwani of ABS is the agent for the fourth agency at 372 Broadway, which is 3,750 square foot store with a full basement and sub-basement.

For many years the area around Canal on Broadway in SoHo has been a retail destination for many clothing and furniture stores. Local and regional retailers were able to find reasonable rents and close proximity to transportation lines in this neighborhood. As these leases turn over, Landlords have been able to attract tenants like Prada, Uniqlo, Express and other high end national chains. These tenants are now looking for a new hip place to open additional stores, and are discovering an excellent environment south of Canal Street as they once pioneered in SoHo. The stretch of Broadway from Canal to Chambers Streets has access to all of Manhattans subway lines. “With the size and scale of the retail stores, the great propinquity to the subways, affordable rents and the Broadway address it is a terrific option for retailers to create a destination location to attract hip young customers with high disposable income” says Ben Waller, an agent for several of the assignments.

http://www.absre.com/news_item.cfm?newsid=83

[lofter1]

... hip young customers with high disposable income ...



That is soooo last week.

[londonlawyer]

This news sucks. These buildings are crap and should be razed.