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In the News: FiDi Restaurateur to Run WFC Market
••• New blood? Huh? Why? Peter Poulakakos, “The operator of the Financier chain of coffee shops, the downtown restaurant Harry’s Cafe and Steak, and several other eateries is close to signing a multi-million dollar deal to open a large food market at the World Financial Center overlooking the Hudson River downtown. […] The market will boast several food counters selling a host of goods from gourmet cheeses and meats, to prepared foods.” —Crain’s
••• “Pace University came a step closer to approval for its proposed 34-story Beekman Street dorm on Tuesday, when Community Board 1 voted overwhelmingly to support the school’s request for a zoning variance to build six more floors than the zoning allows.” Gene Kaufman, responsible for mediocre buildings all over the city, is the architect. —Tribeca Trib
••• “Croine O’Halloran and Ronan Downs, co-owners of the Stone Street Tavern, recently founded the Stone Street Merchants Association to spread the word that bars and restaurants along the belletristic block, which were shuttered by Hurricane Sandy in October, are open for business and ready to host good times once again.” —Broadsheet
••• New York magazine’s Design Hunting goes inside Matt Abramcyk’s and Nadein Farber’s small but nicely designed kitchen. It’s the same one that was for sale a few months back.
••• “On most construction projects, workers are discouraged from signing or otherwise scrawling on the iron and concrete. At the skyscraper rising at ground zero, though, they’re being invited to leave messages for the ages.” —Crain’s
••• “The loss of the Vesey Street pedestrian bridge’s two elevators and one of its escalators, which have been unavailable for more than two months as a result of damage from Hurricane Sandy, has prompted renewed calls for the City’s Department of Transportation to reopen the grade-level crossing at the intersection of West and Vesey Streets.” —Broadsheet
••• Failed Tribeca restaurant Barzinho is trying to reopen on Hester. —Bowery Boogie
••• The schoolyard by the Tweed Courthouse has wood chips on it now. —Tribeca Trib
••• “1 West Residents File Class-Action Lawsuit Over Storm Response.” —Curbed
••• “Some West Side residents who wanted a Downtown developer to upgrade recreation space in Hudson Square in exchange for a major rezoning of the area got their wish Wednesday, when Trinity Real Estate announced it would donate $5.6 million to the city Parks Department.” Much of the money will go to the Carmine Street rec center. —DNAinfo
••• Bon Chon Chicken on John Street has closed. —Downtown Lunch
••• Jenna Lyons is looking for a new place: “Lyons, who makes about $5 million annually from J.Crew, plus bonuses of $1 million-plus, has to leave the American Express Carriage House, her Tribeca abode, because the owner is selling it for $15.9 million, according to Prudential Douglas Elliman. Another source, however, tells us she is leaving due to the Hurricane Sandy flooding in the area.” —New York Daily News
••• Katie Holmes and daughter dined at Sarabeth’s Tribeca. —New York Post
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The crosswalk at Vesey should have been opened long before now. The escalators and elevators for the bridge were never reliable and were out of order more often than working for the past three years. If someone cannot use the stairs, you have to go back to Murray in order to cross. There are usually 3 Pedestrian safety people and two traffic agents on that corner why hasn’t it been opened?
Wow. Poulakakos is going to get control of another piece of major downtown space. Great. They are going into Pier A, too, aren’t they? Any hopes for something exceptional, or even interesting, in these important local spaces are evaporating. Yay mediocrity!
@Doug: Yes, they’re doing Pier A.
Poulakakos is also partnering with the Dermot Companies on the Battery Maritime Building which they are converting to a 90 room hotel, a restaurant and event space. It has a 2015 projected opening. The Governors Island Ferry will remain.
I love Financier, but whenever you have a monopoly, it typically does not bode well for a neighborhood, especially one as small as BPC. Everything here will be Poulokakos or Meyer run.
Pace is going to ‘look into’ the need for crossing guards? Last year a UPS worker was killed on Beekman when an SUV jumped a curb. The only thing that will improve the safety of that intersection, and all of Beekman, would be to close streets to traffic during construction. There’s an argument to keep Beekman open as an ambulance route, but then there’s so much permanent-yet-illegal parking along Beekman that emergency vehicles can’t get through anyway. The only way to get crossing guards will be another death, but sadly it would have to be one of the hundreds of Pace students who walk through that intersection daily. With a Beekman-accessed parking garage soon opening in the south-end plaza of the Gehry tower, there’s an good chance this will be a bigger mess than Pace’s John St. construction.
Also – “A step closer to approval?” Pace started digging up that lot on Monday.