Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Village Lukoil

Since the coming of the undulating One Jackson Square condo and the condo-sponsored mega clean-up of Jackson Square Park, I've been waiting for the Lukoil gas station at 8th Avenue and Horatio to vanish.

Now it has.



Tipster Randi let us know it just shuttered without warning. The gas pumps have been uprooted and carted away. The bags of potato chips and quarts of motor oil have disappeared from the Mini-Mart. A weird sign advertising (sold out) "Explosions in the Sky" remains stuck to the wall.

Once a busy stop for cabbies, there was but a single lone taxi parked there when I visited. I asked the Russian driver, who was eating his lunch in the abandoned station, if he knew what happened. He shrugged and said, "Something bad probably. They took gas pump! It all disappeared overnight."



Like the former Gaseteria of Soho, will this prime spot be the future home of luxury lofts? Residents above, you may be saying goodbye to your park vista.

Esquared alerts us to a pop-up art show at the other Lukoil gas station, up in Chelsea, already wrapped in a silvery condo's grip. How long will that one last?



More vanishing gas stations and the like:
Chelsea Mobil
Firestone Bear Auto
Capturing Manhattanville
at

22 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 28, 2011 at 8:20 AM

    I greatly enjoy your blog. However, why exactly are you bemoaning the closing of a gas station?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jeremiah MossSeptember 28, 2011 at 8:32 AM

    because it's all part of the same big picture. and that's what i am bemoaning.

    it's not as if this gas station will be replaced with an organic community garden or low-income housing. when these businesses go, they're replaced by luxury housing and retail.

    with no gas stations or other auto-related businesses in Manhattan, what's the impact on the working-class people who drive cabs for a living?

    ReplyDelete
  3. EV GrieveSeptember 28, 2011 at 8:53 AM

    I'm actually amazed there are any gas stations left. ANd yes — something horrible always takes the place of gas stations. Like at Avenue B and Houston.

    Meanwhile, I'm hurrying to patent my online gas service. You just download it while driving.

    ReplyDelete
  4. esquared™September 28, 2011 at 9:01 AM

    there was recently a pop-up art show there, and that must have been the beginning to the end to lukoil

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jeremiah MossSeptember 28, 2011 at 9:27 AM

    thanks esquared, i just added your info to the post. but that's the other Lukoil, up in Chelsea, surrounded by a big, shiny condo on the High Line.

    perhaps its demise has just been set.

    ReplyDelete
  6. JAZSeptember 28, 2011 at 9:56 AM

    On the surface, this may appear to be sad, but I think you're overlooking the possibilities; after all, you can probably fit 3 or 4 nice sized Marc Jacobs boutiques in there.

    ReplyDelete
  7. esquared™September 28, 2011 at 10:46 AM

    ooof, right. well, nyc esp. meatpacking district and chelsea have been homogenized and the neighborhoods all look alike that i didn't know the difference. or i could have had too much, or not enough, cupcakes.

    anyhoo, bloomberg just said on his speech: "The American dream cannot survive if we keep telling the dreamers to go elsewhere.” yet, here he is, killing the american dream and pushing out the dreamers out of the city

    ReplyDelete
  8. noobsbtSeptember 28, 2011 at 10:59 AM

    There was a sign on one of the gas pumps at the station right after they closed down that said "Closed for Renovations. Will reopen soon"

    ReplyDelete
  9. noobsbtSeptember 28, 2011 at 11:03 AM

    Also. They tore down the news stand on the corner of 14th and 8th Ave. That did not have any sign of whether or not it will be back.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Little EarthquakeSeptember 28, 2011 at 11:06 AM

    One of the few miracles of this shit economy is that NYC cab fares have remained surprisingly affordable - especially considering the price of gasoline.

    If we continue to lose central-Manhattan gas stations, that may change.

    As Jeremiah said - it affects cab drivers - and the people who can still afford them.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Grand St.September 28, 2011 at 12:02 PM

    I like where JAZ is going with this, as there are serious holes in the Jacobs empire. Where is Marc Jacobs Puggle? Marc Jacobs Au Pair? Marc Jacobs Ponzi?

    There simply isn't enough square footage on Bleecker for all of your Village retail needs. (Incidentally, the former Osteria del Sol on W. 4th and Perry is set to become an A.P.C.) Go get gas in Jersey, folks.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Jeremiah MossSeptember 28, 2011 at 1:21 PM

    ihearted, i was afraid of that. saw it was closed for awhile. i will follow up, thanks.

    esquared, easy mistake as you say in a city where it all looks alike.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Jeremiah MossSeptember 29, 2011 at 2:41 PM

    another ripple from this closure: "The meat-packer felt the squeeze when the gas station at Horatio and Eighth Avenue closed, and his trucks now must drive farther for diesel fuel."

    so the closing of this gas station will help put more meatpackers out of business and out of the meatpacking district.

    http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/hard-times-under-the-high-line-for-small-businesses-1.3208587

    ReplyDelete
  14. JillSeptember 29, 2011 at 10:25 PM

    I am so bummed at having missed that art show at the gas station. It had our own Henry Jones of Avenue A in it. I heard it was pretty cool.

    ReplyDelete
  15. AnonymousOctober 4, 2011 at 1:36 PM

    I live down the block and was upset when the gas station disappeared overnight. People ask "so what" --and I say now cabbies have one less place to get gas in the city, but more importantly, the gas station kept a lovely chunk of land (and especially airspace)away from the developers. Since I've lived here it's been an "open space"--I know it's unlikely that it will remain that way, but I at least hope a small building will end there.

    ReplyDelete
  16. AnonymousOctober 5, 2011 at 3:09 PM

    Apart from all the other issues raised by its closing, Luk Oil's prices were relatively good. I live down the block and now the closest gas station is on 14th and 10th and they have the highest prices in town.

    ReplyDelete
  17. AnonymousOctober 7, 2011 at 4:51 PM

    Have to say that my son lives across the street from the gas station and we will not miss the honking horns of the cabs in line all hours of the night... Although a garden would be nice, the land is just too valuable. Maybe a nice low rise building to match it's neighbors? The city should restive the height of whatever is built there.

    ReplyDelete
  18. AnonymousOctober 11, 2011 at 9:46 AM

    http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20111009/TRANSPORTATION/310099981

    ReplyDelete
  19. Adam GreenOctober 12, 2011 at 8:57 AM

    I was bummed when the place lost its identity as a Getty station and became Lukoil. Here's a reference to it, in its Getty incarnation, in an article that I wrote about a neighborhood phenomenon ten(!) years ago.
    http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2001/09/17/010917talk_mystery_mobile

    ReplyDelete
  20. Jeremiah MossOctober 12, 2011 at 10:19 AM

    Adam, i love that essay and linked to it in a post about Reggie F. Triangle here:

    http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2008/07/reggie-fitzgerald-triangle.html

    i think of it every time i walk by and marvel at the fact that the gypsy fortune teller is still (miraculously) there.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Native New YorkerOctober 14, 2011 at 7:07 AM

    The permits posted at the Eighth Avenue and Horatio Lukoil say tanks are being removed and replaced.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Jeremiah MossOctober 14, 2011 at 8:56 AM

    thanks Native--so maybe it will be reborn as another gas station?

    ReplyDelete

Comments will no longer be published. Too much spam, not enough time. Thank you.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.