Located at 6th and Broome for at least 30 years, the car wash was sold recently, much to the dismay of its employees who walked out over the sale. They made the case that the sale was made as retaliation against their unionizing. They have since been given new jobs at other car washes.
So what's to become of this prime Soho space? Permits on file reveal that it's in the hands of developer PMG, a company "dedicated to its core business strategy: aggressively acquiring land and properties and successfully transforming them to high-end luxury properties."
This spot is zoned for light manufacturing. But, pending zoning approval, PMG has an application on file with the Department of Buildings for a new residential high-rise building here --18 stories high, 27 units. (We don't know what it will look like, but here's what they just developed in Gowanus.)
If you're feeling nostalgic for the 6th Ave. car wash, enjoy this film from a guy with "nothing bettah to do" in his SUV:
I'm sure the residents on the next block over to the east are going to be thrilled that their very long-time western exposure is about to be blocked by a new obnoxious luxury high-rise. But before the blocked view they'll have to live through all the construction noise for 3-4 months. Good times, good times.
ReplyDeleteIt just never stops, does it? That Gowanus building is right around the corner from me, & rent for a 3 bed. Is $8,500 per month. Yesterday Amanda Burden & co. approved a 700 unit rental development on the flood zone banks of the Gowanus. The insanity & greed is boundless.
ReplyDeleteLast week, I took some shots of several men in suits and overcoats in the lot there, standing in a circle and laughing. What a chilling sight. I feel for the people on Sullivan who will likely lose their exposure to the sky.
ReplyDeleteJust as the Trump eyesore a few blocks was erected against light manufacture zoning, against community board approval, this will blight the skyline soon enough.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible to have a city nearly devoid of functional and useful businesses??
ReplyDeleteWhat Anonymous said. I was wondering where the rich were going to get their Mercedes washed?
ReplyDeleteI used to live on Sullivan Street right behind that carwash. The building can be seen in the photo.
ReplyDeleteThere was a super wonderful mural by James Rizzi on the back side of the brick wall facing Sullivan Street.
Anyone got any links to any photos of that mural?
This would have been around 1982 to 1986.
This carwash thing has got me remembering. As someone who still can't get used to the idea that any but a few New Yorkers might even know how to drive a car (why did God invent buses and subways, after all?), and as someone who has driven, and sometimes still drives, in the city with a brio that astounds people who otherwise know me as a mild-mannered, rural Mass. driver. (I learned from the best, growing up in NJ: you do what you gotta do, when you got to -- something rural New England also understands, of course.)
ReplyDeleteIn 1976 or 1977 I got car-lost trying to find my friend at her Morningside Park address. I didn't know this part of the city at all and found my white, female, young self on "the wrong side" of the park. (My mother, who'd grown up not so far away, laughed when she heard this story -- well, of course, the park complicates things! She always refused ever to be afraid of any part of the city. Thank you, Mommy!)
So, I stopped at a gas station. (Who knew there were gas stations in NYC? This was news to me!) The very concerned young black attendant: "What are you doing here, young lady? You need to take care!" After his no doubt good directions, I still was lost. People on stoops where I stopped: I was some sort of alien, but they were all looking out for me. "Hey, girl, what you doin' here? Let me help you." Thanks to all their help, I eventually found my friend.
Just remembering a NYC I love. It's still there, I know it.
How nice that the developers can just rezone whatever they please- as the previous commenter said, a city with no useful businesses, a city that creates nothing but a service class for the wealthy.
ReplyDeleteMike Clellandi:
ReplyDelete"There was a super wonderful mural by James Rizzi on the back side of the brick wall facing Sullivan Street."
That delightful mural by the acclaimed painter is not there anymore.
You know why?
The scumthroat owner of the car wash - for no reason - just decided to whitewash over it about a dozen years ago.
There is surely a special place in hell for such a person.