••• A friend poked his head into Maison Kayser the other day, and they said it’s opening Friday. Trying to confirm it with the company. UPDATE: They tweeted that it opens at 7 a.m.

••• Annika K. Martin tweeted that BLT Bar & Grill in the W New York–Downtown is closing, and sure enough, when I called they said they’d be packing up at the end of the month and that BR Guest is taking over the space. (That’s the company behind Bill’s Bar & Burger, Dos Caminos, Blue Fin, Strip House, Ruby Foo’s, and more.) I called BR Guest, pressed the key for the corporate communications department, and got a message saying, “The party you’ve called is not available. I’m sorry. Message quota exceeded. Goodbye.”

••• Ooh, the windows at 443 Greenwich are going to be nice.

••• Neighbors are ticked off about how long 19 Park Place is taking. From an email P. sent to Community Board 1:

They have had a DOT permit blocking two lanes on Murray Street since May that expires at the beginning of August, one that should not be renewed. At the very least it should be brought down to one lane.

1. The site has long periods where little to no work is being done—not withstanding the 3 stop work orders (one of which is still in place), one suspects they are underfunded. It’s taking far too long. As you can see in the images, having started in 2012, they’re only just completing pouring the slabs.

2. Overall, looking at the site every day and reading the 79 building complaints, 28 + 95 DOB/ECB Violations (2 and 22 open, respectively) and 3 stop orders one gets the impression that the small construction crew we see on the site has little to no experience with US/NYC construction policies.

3. The building itself sits on half the site—why, like so many other buildings, can’t they store materials on the job site as opposed to the street?

4. The construction lane barriers also have a major rat problem (every evening hordes of rats are seen running out from the construction lane barriers to eat from plastic garbage bags put out on the sidewalk by the restaurants).

I see no reason why their funding issues, inexperienced construction practices, and violations should be allowed to continue to inconvenience the residences and businesses on this block. We understand construction is noisy and involves some inconveniences, but their inability to get this project done, safely, in a reasonable amount of time is impacting our quality of life. Their rat problem and lax safety measures endanger all the buildings and pedestrians near the site.

It’s being discussed at tonight’s meeting of CB1’s Quality of Life Committee meeting.

••• A report from the State Liquor Authority meeting where Tara of Tribeca (20 Warren) was discussed: The original resolution was for closing hours of midnight (Sunday through Thursday) and 1 a.m. (Friday and Saturday), with the option to return after six months of operation. The SLA upheld the 12/1 a.m. hours, but the proprietor can have 1 a.m. on Thursday, and the commissioner assured residents that Thursday could revert to 12 if things don’t go well. The bar is reportedly ready to open.

••• Anyone have a recommendation for mini-storage? I don’t need regular access to it, so I don’t care if it’s not nearby (or even in the metropolitan area).