Emmut Properties Plans Another Faux-Loft Building in the Bowery’s Shrinking Lighting District
The future of the Bowery’s “lighting district” continues to dim as Emmut Properties plans a second mixed-use building along the former Skid Row still home to more than a dozen lighting stores. Emmut’s latest Lower East Side foray is planned at 331 Broome Street. According to the developer’s website, the new building will ascend eight floors and feature ground level retail, hotel suites and apartments above.
The 7,000-square-foot lot was picked up by Emmut in early 2014 for $13.5 million, and the development will replace a three-story structure now home to Sololite Lighting and Galaxy Lighting. The posted rendering shows the building will have a faux-loft appearance of red brick and industrial, multi-pane sash windows, details that are somewhat incongruous to the Bowery’s unpretentious 19th-century atmosphere. No building or demolition applications have been filed, but Emmut’s page states construction is slated to begin late in 2016 or early 2017 and debut at the end of 2018.
Across the street from the development, at 134-142 Bowery, Emmut is moving ahead with a similarly programmed eight-story project that is replacing a trio of buildings, including a 200-year-old set of buildings that housed the New York Lighting store. According to a WSJ story, 15 years ago there were about 30 lighting stores lining the Bowery just south of Delancey Street. Since then, the number of retailers has gradually decreased due to the surge in value of downtown real estate.
This isn’t your great grandpapa’s Lower East Side. © CityRealty
Find future listings for the apartments at 331 Broome Street at CityRealty.
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