(Photo: Williamsburg Shopping Weekend)
With rents going up, an L Train shutdown imminent, and chains like Lululemon moving into the ‘burg, retailers are tasked with drumming up more business and loyal shoppers. Enter the first ever Williamsburg Shopping Weekend.
Paperwork has been submitted to replace two previous Driggs Avenue marble yards with these mixed-use buildings. [Brownstoner]
Online luxury consigner The RealReal will make its first foray into brick-and-mortar on Wooster Street (following a December pop-up shop in the neighborhood). [Commercial Observer]
Vegan tapas bar Ladybird will begin welcoming customers to E. 7th Street in about four weeks. [EV Grieve] More →
(Renderings courtesy of Fogarty Finger)
Nearly a year ago, we brought news that a 22-story tower was set to rise above the Dime Savings Bank in Williamsburg. Now architects Fogarty Finger have sent over renderings of The Dime, as the project is being called.
Crashing, the Judd Apatow-produced HBO show in which podcaster extraordinaire Pete Holmes plays an aspiring standup rebounding from a split with his wife, was renewed for season two a couple of months ago, and now it’s back on the streets of New York. A posting on Bedford Avenue indicates it’ll be filming in the heart of Williamsburg on Monday, June 5.
Much of last season’s action occurred in Greenwich Village, where Holmes’s character barked for the Boston Comedy Club and jockeyed for sets along with comics like the one played by Brooklyn fixture Aparna Nancherla. (The Boston Comedy Club was an actual venue; Comedy Village now occupies its subterranean space on MacDougal Street.)
Jon P. Waulters, a 50-year-old Bushwick resident, was arrested Wednesday after attempting five Gotham bank robberies this week. [Bushwick Daily]
Landmark Sunshine Cinema was purchased for $31.5 million and will shutter in January, clearing the way for a retail and office development. [NY Post]
Paperwork was submitted for an 11-story, 104-room hotel planned for Bedford Avenue between S. 4th and 5th Streets. [The Real Deal] More →
(Photo: The William Vale)
Ever since its opening last summer, The William Vale has added more and more amenities to its little corner of Williamsburg– the most recent being Wylie Dufresne’s donut shop, just a few weeks ago. Now comes the crown gem: a fourth-floor pool that, at 60-feet long, bills itself as “the longest outdoor hotel pool in Brooklyn and greater New York City.”
There were some one-off events at the pool last summer (Burning Man decompression party, anyone?), but on May 26 it’ll fully open to the public. That’s right: You’ll never have to dodge turds at the McCarren Park Pool again. Naturally, chilling poolside will cost you: Options range from a three-person pergola ($150 on weekdays, $200 on weekends) to a six-person cabana ($400 to $550). On weekends, you can also book a lounge chair ($45) or daybed ($100) on the adjacent terrace.
These rates are more or less in line with the McCarren Hotel’s pool, where day passes range from $55 (weekday) to $65 (weekend). This season, daybeds for one will be $150 to $175, and daybeds for two will be $325 to $375. That pool also reopens on Memorial Day weekend.
Also in the mix this summer is the Williamsburg Hotel, which, according to a receptionist, is aiming to open its rooftop pool in late June. Rates haven’t yet been announced.
The William Vale has one advantage over its splash-happy neighbors: a menu of light bites from Andrew Carmellini, the celeb chef who also operates the hotel’s rooftop bar, Westlight. Think guacamole with chili-lime chips, grilled hot dogs, and crispy shrimp tacos with chipotle-cilantro slaw. Plus a daily frozen cocktail.
If you’ve got dollars to drown, you can make reservations here, starting May 17.
On the other hand, if these prices are giving you the bends, there’s always the city pool at McCarren Park, which reopens June 29.
More than 100 firefighters helped quell the blaze in last night’s three-alarm fire at Norfolk Street’s Beth Hamedrash Hagadol synsgogue. Two of them were treated for minor injuries. [DNA Info]
Now hospitalized in stable condition, a cyclist was hurt after riding the wrong way down Morgan Street and crashing into an NYPD SUV around 2 a.m. this morning. [DNA Info]
Lower East Side Rabbi Zvi Romm is displeased that the Henry Street Settlement invited Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour to participate in an upcoming panel.
[Bowery Boogie]
More →
Artist Akwety Orraca-Tetteh (center with yellow headscarf) with exhibtion attendees. (Photo: Nick McManus)
During its year in Williamsburg, Okay Space, the arts venue opened by Roots drummer Questlove and run by Okayplayer’s president Dan Petruzzi, has been hosting exhibitions and small concerts that share the aesthetics of the label and its Afrocentric media platform OkayAfrica. Recent exhibitions have included a co-exhibition with rapper Schoolly D alongside painter Pablo Power and Fete Fete’s Baldamore showcase of Baltimore Artists.
On Friday afternoon, a 22-year-old man was shot and killed in a Williamsburg courtyard. [NY Daily News]
In yesterday’s pre-dawn hours, a Lower East Side man at home was pistol-whipped and robbed of his wallet and electronics by four masked assailants. Police have thus far made no arrests. [CBS NY]
A residential building at the intersection of Bedford Avenue and Wilson Street was evacuated Friday when the roof partially collapsed. No one suffered injuries. [News 12 Brooklyn] More →
(Photo: Liz Clayman for NY Mag)
In 2013, former wd~50 pastry chef Sam Mason opened up a cutting-edge ice cream shop in Williamsburg, and now wd~50’s big cahuna, famed modernist chef Wylie Dufresne, is opening up a donut shop nearby. Du’s Donuts and Coffee opens today adjacent the William Vale hotel, right next to where former child star Dylan Sprouse is set to launch a meadery.