Committee is turned off by design for sex shop site BY SAM SPOKONY
PHOTOS BY SAM SPOKONY
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developer hopes to replace a Village sex shop with a five-story mixed-use building featuring three large residential units — but the plans didn’t get much love from Community Board 2’s Landmarks Committee. The current, 70-year-old, one-story building at 192 Seventh Ave. South — at the southwest corner of the avenue and W. 11th St. — has for the past decade been occupied by Fantasy World, an adult sex products shop. The property was bought early last year by the Jackson Group for $4.1 million, according to city finance records. Last November, the developer filed plans to construct the new building, which would have around 1,200 square feet of ground-floor commercial space under its two full-floor apartments and crowning duplex, according to Department of Building records. And although no demolition
A design rendering of the Seventh Ave. South side of the proposed building, as shown to the C.B. 2 Landmarks Committee.
A rendering of the W. 11th St. side of the proposed building.
plans have yet been filed, the developer told several real estate blogs last year that the sex shop would definitely be replaced by a more mainstream, high-end tenant. Since the Seventh Ave. South site lies within the Greenwich Village Historic District, the project requires the approval
of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission before it can go forward. The developer recently took the next step in that process by sending the building's architect, S.R.A. Architecture and Engineering, to present its exterior plans to the C.B. 2 committee on March 10.
Renderings of the building showed an approach based on stark duality — an approach that ultimately failed in the eyes of the committee. The design for the building’s W. 11th St. side, which includes the residential entrance, featured a brick-clad facade lined with relatively small windows. The Seventh Ave. South side, which includes the commercial storefront, was sheathed almost entirely in a glass-andmetal facade, with a slim strip of that residential brick running down one side. This side only rises four stories tall. Three members of the C.B. 2 Landmarks Committee, including its co-chairperson, Sean Sweeney, said they actually didn’t think the building looked too bad over all. But the other eight members variously declared it “ugly,” “hideous” and “schizophrenic,” with that last term directly referring to the project’s two-sided, yet somewhat overlapping design. The committee split along those lines for an eight-to-three vote, recommending L.P.C. deny the application.
Panty raids par for course at Soho Victoria’s Secret BY SAM SPOKONY
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ow here’s a store that can’t help getting caught with its pants down. Soho’s Victoria’s Secret has become a haven for shoplifters, with 10 reported crimes over the past year that have collectively cost the lingerie shop more than $17,000 worth of stolen merchandise. The most recent incident at the 591 Broadway outlet, on Feb. 21, involved an unidentified woman who successfully made off with 105 pairs of panties, according to police reports. And a month before that, four women got away with swiping 300 pair, after three of them were apparently able to distract and confound both the sales staff and security guard before dashing out the door. Those crimes might suggest that Victoria’s Secret didn’t quite learn its lesson after hundreds of panties, thongs, garter belts and bras were stolen from the Soho store throughout 2013, with only one shoplifter during that time — a 32-yearold woman who snatched up four bottles of perfume — actually being caught by store security and arrested by cops. On top of all that, a customer’s cell phone was stolen while she
MOVIN’ ON OUT: The School of Visual Arts will be leaving the building it has been leasing for a 100-bed residence hall at Third Ave. and E. 10th St. at the end of the spring semester. Javier Vega, S.V.A. director of admissions and student affairs, said the school is building a new 500-bed, 14-story residence at E. 24th St. and First Ave., and that while the E. 10th St. dorm had a good 10year run, it’s more cost effective for them not to lease it anymore. S.V.A. houses about one-third of its 3,500 students, including 353 at its new dorm at Delancey and Ludlow Sts. Vega said the L.E.S. dorm is for older students, since “there are a lot more distractions down there.” N.Y.U. spokesperson Philip Lentz said they’re not interested in the E. 10th St. building. PARK PRISON? Intrepid blogger Cathryn Swan recently
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March 13, 2014
reported that the Police Department may have a space inside the new park building in Washington Square Park. For around 15 years or so, there has been a police trailer outside the park, with monitors (but not always a police officer) for the park’s plethora of surveillance cameras. Swan cited a rumor that the building will have a police holding cell. We asked Parks spokesperson Phil Abramson for clarification. “There will not be any police holding cells inside the Washington Square Park building. That is a false rumor,” he told us. “We are currently communicating with the N.Y.P.D. on how we can best facilitate public safety in the park and the surrounding area. I can’t comment on what use there may be [in the park building].” We’re told by a reliable source, however, that “a small room is likely” for the police in the park building.
PHOTO BY BOB KRASNER
SCOOPY’S, continued from p. 3
was browsing the shop last October. A recent visit to the Broadway store showed a single security guard standing idly just inside the front door, who explained that he’s not actually employed by Victoria’s Secret, but instead works for an outside agency, whose name he didn’t disclose. The guard, who also didn’t give his own name, said he works alone at the store, from opening to closing time, four days a week, in tandem with a second guard who works the other three full days. And those are long shifts — clocking in at around 12 hours for Monday through Saturday, and eight hours on Sunday. So, the reporter wondered, maybe those two guys could use some help in terms of breaking up the shifts and getting a fresh pair of eyes on the door? But the guard said he isn’t aware of any plans to bolster security, even after all the shoplifting problems, and Victoria’s Secret’s corporate office doesn’t seem to want to talk much about the issue. “We take matters of theft seriously and work closely and in cooperation with local state and federal authorities on these types of investigations,” said a company spokesperson, in response to questions about the many undergarments that have unlawfully passed through the Soho shop’s doors. “We do not have any additional information to provide at this time.” The Soho location may not be quite as rife with intrigue as Victoria’s Secret’s flagship store at W. 34th St. and Sixth Ave., where last October a 17-year-old shoplifter was caught also carrying a dead baby in her bag.
Oi! The first sign of spring? A punk displayed his plumage in Union Square this week. Clocks were set forward one hour last weekend, and the vernal equinox is on Thurs., April 20, the first day of spring.
TheVillager.com