Seen & Heard: The Lies of Town Stages

••• Town Stages started out saying it would be an arts center; when pushed, it acknowledged that raises funds by functioning as an event space. An email that it sent out this morning for its “grand opening” refers to it as “Event venue • Cultural arts space • Cocktail bar.” For an establishment that purports to be about building community, it has behaved poorly with ours.

••• Here’s more on flavored-water company Dirty Lemon and its plans for 297 293 Church. They did something similar called the Drug Store in Nolita last year.

••• A dirty tweet of a different kind…. I don’t know where this is (Church below Murray?) or whether it really even is Tribeca, and I’m out of town so I can’t go look. But the posted is too good to not post.

••• “I was wondering if you knew what was up with the construction projects on Park Place,” emailed L. “Both of these seem to have practically stopped in their tracks. Is this all just normal NYC construction delays or is there something wrong with one or both of the buildings? First: 19 Park Place looks to be done, and has looked that way for quite a while, but nobody has moved in yet. I saw some construction workers and guys in suits pointing at stuff on one of the high balconies the other day, but not a single apartment appears to be occupied. Second: 45 Park Place was going gangbusters and rising fast, but for the last month or so, almost no work seems to be happening. Right now, they’re up to about floor 14 or 15, but they haven’t built a new floor in weeks and it doesn’t look like there are even many people on the site.” There is a stop-work order for 19 Park Place, regarding the damage next door: “BUILDING FACADE AND FOUNDATION WALL OF 18 MURRAY AND 16 MURRAY DAMAGED BY NEW CONSTRUCTION AT 19 PARK PLACE,” says the Department of Buildings order. (This is why Tent & Trails has closed.) As for 45 Park Place, the DOB lists violations but not a stop-work order; if anyone can make more sense of the filings, please chime in. And if there are financial trouble for either building, I’m not sure I’d be able to find out until someone sues someone else (which is usually how these issues become public).

 

3 Comments

  1. 293 Church, not 297.

  2. The Town Stages would never be able to survive as just a cultural center. as long as its well managed an event space can have a beneficial presence in the community. rents are out of control, and empty storefronts are everywhere we should embrace the effort and support town stages.

  3. Agree with Arthur. With the exception of some aggressive negative reviews before they even opened, I am not sure what they have done so bad. And the constant evil eye out for every one of their mailings is a bit hysterical.
    I remember when the developers who bought the old Teddy’s or El Teddy’s space said they were going to house their financial business and family in the new building – you just knew they were lying but they don’t seem to be much of a problem though I do miss the Teddy’s whimsical building.
    Give Town Stages a little bit of breathing room for god sake. They deserve no less chance than any other business.

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