Henry. For any hardcore observer of Lower East Side real estate, the name Henry carries a lot of weight. Specifically, it's Henry Rainge-Megill, the quixotic leaseholder of the vacant Building B in the Essex Street Retail Market complex. Almost 10 years after Henry signed a 20-year lease on the building, and a few failed plans later, the Villager reports that the city finally won its battle to evict him.
So what's going to happen to Building B, last seen with real live people passing through? That's not decided yet, but it definitely won't be what you see at right, an arts and retail complex with a 12-story residential building. That was developer Bob Perl's plan, which was abandoned in 2006 because of?as Perl tells it?the many competing interests of the politicians involved. There's about a million directions the Economic Development Corporation could go with this, including city-owned affordable housing, selling the land to developers (BLUE II, anyone?) or?and this sounds totally awesome?"Baseball City," an indoor practice facility. We're pumped for the next two years of heated debate.
· Old market building to go from rags to riches? [Villager]
· Storefronting: Essex Letdown, the Qdoba Cometh [Curbed]