Pathmark plans?
Developers and financiers are mulling over the 227 Cherry St. Pathmark’s future, but plans at this point are murky.
Over the past few months, brokers and consultants passed around a design for residential towers on the Pathmark parking lot. Those designs retain a Pathmark store beside the towers, but a developer told UnderCover that those plans are out of date and the plan now is to close the store.
“It was a possibility [that Pathmark would stay open], but not anymore,” said Jazmin Stricker, project coordinator at the Developer Resource Group, a new financing and developing company.
But several consultants contradicted Stricker, saying that Pathmark tabled the project because the property was a difficult sell. Back on the other hand, contractors were taking soil samples in the lot last week and Pathmark’s corporate office has not denied any of the development rumors. Pathmark execs did not comment on the designs, which also circulated among Community Board 3 members and several elected officials last week.
Back off Saatchi
Last Friday, Sen. Hillary Clinton had a tête-á-tête with top carpenters’ union officials right in the heart of Hudson Square, at PJ Charlton Italian restaurant on Greenwich St. According to Phil Mouquinho, the restaurant’s owner, Clinton was seated with union officials and they were in deep discussion about the campaign.
In the middle of their conversation, however, a group of carousers from nearby Saatchi & Saatchi dressed up in Halloween costumes stumbled into the restaurant, raising the eyebrows of, but not overly alarming, Clinton’s Secret Service detail. At a certain point, one of the carousers spotted Clinton and asked if she was “the real thing” or someone in a Hillary costume. Mouquinho requested that they give the real thing some privacy.
Friends like these
Al Butzel will be leaving as president and C.E.O. of Friends of Hudson River Park at the end of the year. Butzel had rubbed some waterfront advocates the wrong way, losing some friends outside and perhaps inside of Friends, a non-profit group that lobbies for the riverside park. This might have led to his departure, which is being described officially as a resignation, according to a source.
Developer Doug Durst and Ross Graham, co-chairpersons of Friends, met with Butzel on Oct. 5 and discussed demoting Butzel to senior counsel, according to an e-mail circulated among Friends and their friends. Butzel said no. But he may not be leaving on unfriendly terms, though, as there is talk of him joining Friends’ board and doing some consulting work.
Fab-ber than five
When only five non-profit organizations applied for a Financial District space at below market value, Community Board 1 decided to extend the deadline to Nov. 20.
Developer SwigEquities is offering a five-year lease on the 3,400-square-foot space at 90 Broad St. for $12 a square foot rather than the standard $36.
By the original Sept. 4 deadline, the organizations that had applied for the space were the Anne Frank Center, USA; Dance Dynamic; Manhattan Children’s Theatre; Manhattan Youth; and World Cares Center.
C.B. 1 did not name the organizations that inquired about the space after the deadline.
“We’re really thrilled about this,” C.B. 1 Chair Julie Menin said. “It’s a great opportunity for a not-for-profit to obtain space.”
After a C.B. 1 panel narrows the pool to three finalists, Swig Equities will pick a winner.
Andrew Flamm, vice president of SwigEquities, wants to find a nonprofit that is “reaching out and servicing as wide a community as possible,” he said.
The new tenant will move into the space in February 2008.
Pops’ Grammy dreams
“It’s a thrill just to be nominated,” is one of those Hollywood award clichés that no one ever believes, but if the TriBattery Pops somehow manage to win a Grammy, believe band leader Tom Goodkind if he ends up saying that in his acceptance speech.
Goodkind and the Pops, made up mostly of Tribeca and Battery Park City residents, are once again finalists to be nominated – this time for Best Pop Instrumental Album, where the band is competing with 110 others for five nominating slots, and Best Instrumental Composition, where 296 others are vying for a nod. Goodkind said the “odds aren’t very good” on getting a nomination, but you never know.
New column
UnderCover gets a bold new partner starting this week – Mixed Use – with juicy real estate tidbits from mixed use districts and other neighborhoods Downtown. Patrick Hedlund, real estate reporter for UnderCover’s boss, Community Media L.L.C., will be writing the weekly, boldfaced column, which appears on page 13 of this week’s Express. Mixed Use will soon begin appearing in The Villager and Chelsea Now as well.
For any tips connected to retail, residential or office real estate in Lower Manhattan, e-mail Patrick at mixeduse@communitymediallc.com.
