Vacant Lower East Side property will be razed for micro-unit building

A dilapidated Lower East Side building that’s sat vacant for a decade will be replaced by a 10-story micro-unit building if the site’s new owner has its way.

Nicholas Strini/PropertyShark

The LLC owner of the property at 11 Essex Street, between Canal and Hester streets and across the way from Seward Park, wants to replace the existing six-story structure with a new building that has thirteen one-bedroom apartments measuring about 500 square feet topped by two full-floor apartments, Bowery Boogie has learned. The development will be angled to “[cater] to young professionals,” reads materials produced by architect TRA Studio.

Demolition of the existing structure was approved by the Department of Buildings last month. The permits were filed by the site’s new owner, 11 Essex Street LLC, who purchased the property for $11.4 million in August 2017 from Sion Misrahi.

The Department of Buildings declared the building unsafe for habitation in 2009 after it was damaged during the construction of a neighboring building, and ordered its mostly rent stabilized tenants to vacate. It’s sat uninhabited since.