Last Gas Station in East Village Demolished

EAST VILLAGE, NY — Demolition began on the last gas station in the East Village on Tuesday, making way for a 10-story modern retail-residential building in its place.

Local blog EVGrieve spotted a demolition crew at the site Tuesday morning. The station on Avenue C and East Houston Street has been vacant since it shut down in September 2014.

The Department of Buildings permits say the demolition was slated to begin Tuesday. Developer Hakimian Property filed plans to build a 10-story retail-residential building on the site, but the construction permits have yet to be approved by the DOB.

The modern building Hakimian is hoping to put in place of the old gas station was designed by architecture firm Rotwein+Blake. It will have 4,600 square feet of retail on the ground floor, 46 residential units and a landscaped roof terrace.

"The narrow triangular site, presented numerous challenges from its odd shape to zoning constraints," according to the Rotwein+Blake website.

The shuttering of the old gas station in 2014 was part of a trend of quickly disappearing options in Manhattan. A 2014 Wall Street Journal analysis of gas stations on the island found there were only 12 left below 96th Street, and several have closed since then.

Photo from Google Maps, Renderings courtesy of Rotwein+Blake