Let’s check on the progress of one of the Lower East Side’s many boutique hotel projects, the 10-story tower in the works at 119 Orchard St.
Earlier this year, plans emerged for the 16-room hotel with a community facility and a restaurant/bar. The site, which formerly housed Fine & Klein Handbags, languished for several years after the bottom fell out of the real estate market. On Monday night, the owners will go before Community Board 3’s liquor licensing committee to outline plans for a restaurant within the hotel, which is located just above Delancey Street.
Preliminary paperwork indicates the property owner has not changed since 2008 when Shimon Avadi of SAS Property Management bought the site for $4.2 million. The application includes a request to sell liquor on an outdoor patio/roof deck.
RKF, the retail leasing firm, has been advertising 3600 square feet of commercial space on the first floor and a lower level. The listing notes that there will be entrances on both Orchard and Allen streets and that the space will be “delivered restaurant-ready.”
The project was designed by Grzywinski+Pons Ltd, an architectural firm that has been behind many LES buildings, including the Hotel on Rivinton and 115 Norfolk St.
Another hotel project at 139 Orchard St., has been stalled for years; two companies have been feuding in court over ownership of the site. The one block stretch of Orchard between Delancey and Rivington streets is, of course, rapidly transforming. Three new restaurants – Black Tree, Contra and Mi Casa Es Su Casa opened this year, as well as Extra Butter, a sneaker “boutique.” Russ & Daughters is opening a new restaurant at 127 Orchard in the coming year.
