I tweeted a week or so ago about the transformation of Slick’s old place into the new home of Mollusk Surf Shop. Brownstoner has a another view of the cleaned up storefront here.
I can’t imagine a better store to replace Slick’s – hopefully they’ll be taking up all the street parking with used surfboards.
Brownstoner, citing an a direct but unnamed source, is reporting that the rumored Whole Foods at Kent and Metropolitan is not going to be at the Monster Island, but instead on the other side of Kent Avenue. The site in question runs along Kent from Metropolitan to North 3rd, the open lot on the corner of Metropolitan, and a one-story green shed occupying the North 3rd corner. Unlike the west side of Kent, this side of the avenue is zoned for medium-density residential and commercial, so an as-of-right development would be similar in scale to that which is just finishing up at 175 Kent.
A quick search of city records shows virtually no activity on this site in ages. The property is owned by Manhattan LLC in Manhattan (the same LLC owns the adjacent property on North 3rd Street). There have been no property transactions since 2006, and no DOB actions since 1998. The lot is used to store building materials, and seems to be operated by a Chinese company, which would square with the address of the LLC, which is on Grand Street in Chinatown.
This site does seem to have more of the amount of space that a Whole Foods would require (particularly if you include the site on North 3rd), but with no plans filed, any mixed-use development is a long, long way off. Too long, it seems to me, for a retailer to commit to – particularly when there are large (but perhaps large enough) retail spaces at both 175 and 184 Kent. The west side of Kent still makes more sense for a retailer to build ground-up. Residential is not allowed as of right on that side of the street, so commercial development could be the best play there.
For the moment, I’m putting all of this in the category of Apple store and Starbucks speculation. Maybe Whole Foods (or some other high-end grocery store) is coming to the neighborhood, and maybe they’re coming to this part of Kent Avenue. We’ll see.
And while all of this (probably idle) speculation is going on about the Kent Avenue site, there is some serious demolition happening at the Con Ed property on the west side of River Street. According to DOB, Con Ed is demolishing “three (3) retired fuel tanks”, each constructed of concrete over 20″ thick. What will replace these riverside tanks is not known (how about a waterfront esplanade?!?).
Rumour has it that Whole Foods supermarket may open a branch in its place.
New one on me – it is worth noting that the site (on the west side of Kent Avenue) is not zoned for residential use. So absent a rezoning application, it won’t be a condo. But as far as I know, retail (or hotel, restaurant, club, etc.) are all as-of-right uses.
Monster Island will be holding a farewell block party on Saturday, 10 September.
Conveniently located across the street from the Levee – my how that corner of the neighborhood has changed…
From Curbed, 11 Broadway gets a new (tan) facade. The building is about halfway up, and Curbed reports that it is slated to open (possibly with a grocery store) towards the end of 2012.
Photo: NYShitty
Someone has been doing some decorating. Miss Heather has a photo of Slick’s old shop on Wythe and North 3rd. The space has been empty since Slick (R.I.P.) died in 2008 – is this a sign of an impending retail establishment?
The Northside is getting its first supermarket.
OK, technically, the Northside has a supermarket in Tops on the Waterfront. But as endearing (and enduring) as Tops is, there’s nothing “super” about it, even grading on the curve that is NYC supermarkets.
Maybe “Williamsburg Food Town” won’t be a proper supermarket either. It might be a supersized Khim’s Millenium Market (open this week at two new locations on Bedford Avenue!!) – a well stocked, overpriced bodega. It might be another Tops – a poorly stocked, reasonably priced not-so-super market. It may or may not sell condos (Williamsburg has a Food Town across the street from a Duane Reade – I’m moving there!). And it may soon be eclipsed by an actual supermarket (Whole Foods(!), Trader Joes(!), Shop Rite(!), or dare we dream – Fairway(!!!)) somewhere on the waterfront1.
But right now, Williamsburg Food Town has the inside track for being the first supermarket on the Northside. And if it is, it is way overdue.
1. For the record, I have absolutely no information in this regard. Seriously, nothing.
242 Bedford Avenue
Photo: The Real Deal
The Real Deal has an article saying that discount clothing retailer Marshall’s and drugstore may be coming to Bedford Avenue. The location in question is 242 Bedford Avenue, the rusted hulk at the corner of Bedford and North 4th. According to the Real Deal, the owners of the property – the Backer Group – had an agreement to sell the property, but has also gone into bankruptcy to forestall a foreclosure by Capital One Bank. As the article says, “the Backer site has a complicated background.”
Actually, that ain’t the half of it. The building (which until a few years ago housed a art framing company and other industrial tenants) was part of a larger urban renewal site that was developed in the late 70s or early 80s. The urban renewal area included the small brick townhouses along North 3rd and North 4th and the property that is now under construction by Quadriad (the Duane Reade site). Even though the block is zoned for residential use, because of the urban renewal designation, the site was restricted to manufacturing use through (I think) December, 2009.
In the fall of 2007, Backer sought the support of the Community Board to build a Commerce Bank on the corner of Bedford and affordable housing in much of the rest of the building. The Community Board (along with Council Member Diana Reyna) didn’t buy into the project, mainly because all of the affordable housing would have been studios. Without the support of the Board and Council, the owner had no hope of undoing the urban renewal designation early, so the project went away and the site continued to sit vacant. (In that sense, the Real Deal is wrong when it says that this is a stalled site – there never was a project to stall.)
The Backers, by the way, also own the large property on the other side of Bedford, which houses, among others, the Bagel Store. That site has been the subject of other retail (and chain) rumors ever since the landlord threw out the potential of a Starbucks coming to the building. I may be wrong, but I still think that was a just a “for instance” negotiating tactic on the landlord’s part, and that there is no deal to bring a Starbucks to that storefront (the Bagel Store lease won’t be up for another year or so – again, if Starbucks wants to move into the neighborhood, why would they wait two years to do so?). Regardless, between Commerce Bank and Starbucks, there is a history of retail teases here.
As for Marshall’s, I’m guessing no way. CVS maybe, but Bedford Avenue does not seem to fit Marshall’s M.O. at all. They are a retail chain that depends on auto, not foot traffic, and (typically) goes for larger stores in mall or shopping center settings. CVS is already building a store three blocks away (at the Edge), but as Duane Reade as shown us, drugstore chains have no qualms about cannibalizing their own business. And if DR is on Bedford, you can bet that CVS isn’t too far behind.
Still, the last thing Bedford Avenue needs is another side-by-side pairing of drugstores. With any luck, this site will become the grocery store that Williamsburg desperately needs (hopefully that doesn’t mean the mother of all Khim’s Millenium Markets, though). Or maybe this will be our long-promised Apple store.
