City Council awarded a second contract for further environmental services on a downtown property that the city plans to acquire.
Continue reading Council approves second environmental contract
Tag Archives: KC Jazz
City to acquire site where jazz club was proposed
The city plans to acquire three parcels on the eastern end of downtown where years ago a jazz club was planned but have long been vacant.
Continue reading City to acquire site where jazz club was proposed
Plans for Irving Street parcel scrapped
A concept plan for a long-vacant downtown site where a jazz club had once been proposed has been withdrawn.
Continue reading Plans for Irving Street parcel scrapped
KC Jazz site finally sold
A critical gateway property to downtown recently changed hands and has seen some activity in recent weeks.
Would you invest $10 for a public mural?
On vacation this week, blogging from our Sag Harbor, N.Y. bureau…
Would you give $10 to get a funky mural painted on the putrid-looking KC Jazz property?
‘What’s going on here?’
The annual State of the City address, typically delivered during the City Council’s annual reorganization at its first meeting of the year in January, will instead this year be delivered by Interim Mayor Samson Steinman on Feb. 5 at Hamilton Stage for Performing Arts.
KC Jazz site could become parking
The building that was to become a jazz club is no longer structurally safe and developers are ready to cut their losses on the project.
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| File photo |
Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier reported to the Redevelopment Agency earlier this month that Ronald Esposito, an attorney representing E.T. Building, LLC, said the property is plagued by multiple problems: the building is structurally unsafe, plumbing has been ripped out due to theft, and a leaking roof has created water damage. The building has no value but RSI bank still is owed some $400,000 on the mortgage, he said.
Should the bank take the property in foreclosure, Pelissier said the Parking Authority could negotiate with the bank to see what the best use of the property might be, most likely as parking since it’s needed in the area of Seminary Avenue and Irving Street area.
The Redevelopment Agency last year granted Esposito’s request to lift a restriction that the property be developed specifically as a jazz club. For years, the former Kelly’s Pub site was slated to become KC Jazz restaurant, receiving Planning Board approval in July 2007.
Restriction lifted on proposed jazz club
The Redevelopment Agency last night officially agreed to consider uses other than those permitted in the redevelopment agreement for the former Kelly’s Pub property.
A principal of the proposed KC Jazz Club at 1646-54 Irving St. (Block 162, Lots 5-7) made his case to commissioners at their meeting last month, arguing that financing evaporated while annual costs continue unabated. A restriction limiting the property to use as a jazz club apparently also hindered any potential sale or new developer to resurrect the project.
(Note the new sign in recent weeks, “Commercial Building Available,” on the left in the photo above, juxtaposed with the one on the right that says: “Coming Soon! KC Jazz Restaurant.”)
The resolution was adopted during a special meeting last night, a week after a lack of quorum for last week’s regularly-scheduled meeting did not allow for official action to be taken.
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Check out this piece from Crain’s New York Business about Brooklyn’s Myrtle Avenue. Twenty years ago, you’d be told to avoid the Clinton Hill neighborhood’s “crime-ridden main drag.” Today, 97 percent of the businesses are locally owned, with eight new arrivals in the past year, and 78 percent of them are minorities and/or women.
The story provides some details about community leaders and longtime residents creating a revitalization project in 1999 that has morphed into a business improvement district with an annual budget of $1 million thanks to money from the city, private foundations and fees on local landlords.