The latest building to bite the dust near the High Line is the auto shop at 500 West 25th Street, best known for artist Eduardo Kobra’s iconic mural of a sailor kissing a nurse. YIMBY spotted plans on file with the DOB for a new building to replace the car stereo store, which sits on the corner of West 25th Street and Tenth Avenue. Plans show the new building would have approximately 3,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, with 13,000 square feet of residential space over six condo apartments. The building will be topped with a duplex penthouse apartment and a roof deck.
The development would also encompass 253 10th Avenue, a four-story apartment building with an Italian restaurant on the ground floor. Both the apartment building and auto shop have been owned by the same family since 1981--the developers have not finalized their purchase yet. Neither building has been demolished.
The building owners painted over the mural—one of the most photographed spots visible from the High Line—early this year. As YIMBY guessed, "They probably wanted to prevent the artist from filing suit to save the mural (and possibly the building) under the Visual Artists Rights Act, the same law that the artists at 5 Pointz used to try and block the demolition of the street art project’s warehouses in Long Island City."
GDSNY will develop the building, while architecture firm GF55 Partners applied for building permits. And so the High Line will be hugged by yet another luxury residential project when construction wraps.
- Permits Filed: 500 West 25th Street, Chelsea [YIMBY]
- All High Line coverage [Curbed]