Lena Dunham, Spike Jonze at last night’s Lowline benefit. Photos courtesy: Andrew Einhorn and Jammi York
“Girls” star Lena Dunham and award-winning director Spike Jonze were the center of attention as co-hosts of last night’s benefit dinner in support of the proposed Lowline underground park. But it was Alicia Glen, New York City’s deputy mayor for housing and economic development, who may very have stolen the show.
During remarks at the Lowline’s third annual “anti-gala,” held at the Skyline Modern event space on West 27th Street, Glen made it clear the de Blasio administration is fully in support of the project, which would bring a 60,000 square foot park to an abandoned trolley station below Delancey Street. It was the first time any official representing the mayor had publicly endorsed the initiative.
As we reported yesterday, six remaining tenants at 400 Grand Street, which will be demolished next year to make way for the Essex Crossing project, are fighting for relocation rights. But another tenant in the building, the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy, is also concerned about its future.
400 Grand Street.
The conservancy, part of the United Jewish Council of the East Side, established its first dedicated home in a 650 square foot storefront at 400 Grand in 2011. The space had previously been occupied by Ruby’s Fruits, a Lower East Side institution. But the building will likely be emptied and torn down next year in preparation for new residential and commercial development set to rise on nine long-neglected sites in the former Seward Park Urban Renewal Area.
Rendering: Essex Crossing. SHoP Architects.
A year ago next week, a sweeping plan was unveiled to redevelop the former Seward Park urban renewal site adjacent to the Williamsburg Bridge, bringing one-thousand new apartments and 600,000 square feet of commercial space to the Lower East Side. Since that time, developers and architects have been hard at work to meet a spring 2015 deadline for groundbreaking on the first four parcels. For an update on their progress, we sat down recently with key members of Delancey Street Associates, the consortium created to build the project, known as Essex Crossing.
Charlie Bendit is co-CEO of Taconic Investment Partners, which along with L+M Partners and BFC Partners, was selected to create the nearly 2-million square foot complex. Isaac Henderson of L+M is the project manager. We met in a conference room ringed with conceptual drawings of Essex Crossing at L+M’s offices on Park Avenue South. Among the headlines from our interview:
Essex Crossing Developers Designate Architects; Park Planning Begins Next Month | The Lo-Down : News from the Lower East Side thelodownny.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thelodownny.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The James Fuentes Gallery has announced a fascinating show taking place next month celebrating a groundbreaking moment in the Lower East Side’s history of art and activism. Here’s a portion of the press release: James Fuentes is honored to announce its forthcoming exhibition which will revisit a seminal exhibition called The Real Estate Show, which […]