By Melissa Korn
Designer du jour Marc Jacobs has been credited in some circles as launching the Bleecker St. retail renaissance, encouraging other high-end shops like Intermix, Ralph Lauren and Olive & Bette’s to settle on the once-bohemian street.
But some aren’t so happy to see Jacobs, who now owns three separate shops within a two-block radius of Bleecker and Perry Sts. The block’s changing scenery aside, neighbors now say they are troubled by incessant noise coming from the basement and alleyway near his newest store at 382 Bleecker St.
“They scream, they shout, they bang the metal door constantly,” said Patricia Avallone, a longtime resident at 96 Perry St. “I think something has happened here that should not have happened.”
Avallone said said she believes the alley between 92 and 96 Perry Sts., which has a door leading to the basement of the Marc Jacobs men’s store, is being used as a boxing or distribution center. She said it’s impossible that so much noise can come from just unpacking regular store deliveries.
“It’s a 24-hour operation most of the time,” Avallone said, adding that she has noticed men outside opening and repackaging boxes with the radio playing until midnight on some nights.
It’s not just neighbors on the lowest floors who are affected by the activity near the basement, which, until Marc Jacobs moved in, was the superintendent’s apartment.
John Burdi, who lives on the top floor of 92 Perry St., said he heard the sound of something being taped. His description of the taping wasn’t quite as severe as Avallone’s, who compared being subjected to the taping noise to “a Chinese water-torture situation.”
Burdi also said he heard “the sound when you shovel snow against concrete,” which another tenant confirmed was the noise the alley’s entrance gate makes when it is opened or closed.
What the tenants hear going on in the alley between their buildings is, according to the city’s Buildings Department, technically legal. Aside from the noise issue, which the department said it will investigate “in the near future” now that Avallone filed a complaint, Marc Jacobs is allowed to use the basement for shipping and distribution, since it is an “accessory use” to retail space. Because the store rents the building’s basement and its related doorway, it is therefore allowed to enter and exit the building through that doorway.
Marc Jacobs Co. didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment for this article. An employee at the men’s store, who wouldn’t give his name because he isn’t an official representative, initially denied that the store made any noise and said the complaints must have been from when the shop was preparing to open earlier this summer. He then said that employees do use the basement door for routine matters, but only during “regular hours, up until 10 p.m. at the latest.”
Even without the noise, though, tenants are still upset by potential safety issues associated with the now-active area.
“What really concerns me is the fire hazards,” said Joan Perry, who lives on the first floor of 96 Perry St. She said she sees mounds of cardboard lying around, dust floating up and workers smoking right near the flammable objects. “The whole of the alleyway is completely blocked when they’re loading and unloading,” she said.
Additionally, Perry said, she feels insecure living directly above the alley now that the gated entrance is often left open, potentially allowing outsiders access to the fire escapes.
Although store employees are allowed to enter and exit the basement through the alley, tenants are still wary of their use of the area as a staging ground for packing and unpacking shipments. Perry said she’s worried that the ease with which the store spilled out from the basement to the surrounding space is a sign of more to come.
“If they get comfy cozy here, there’s no way someone else isn’t going to see that and try to get another place,” leasing just an alley for similar purposes elsewhere in the area, she predicted.
Even if they must remain in the alley, Perry suggested, employees could be more respectful of the fact that they are working in a residential area. They could move to the far back corner of the alley, which, she said, would be less obstructive and also quieter. She said the workers have used that space before with no problem and doesn’t see why they can’t move there permanently, if they must use the space at all.
Both Avallone and Perry have asked the employees to quiet down and be more respectful, and the two said the response has varied. On Monday evening, the alley was silent. But there were still three waist-high bundles of cardboard wrapped in plastic, propped against and partially blocking the inside of the entrance gate.
