Bowery Boogie | A Lower East Side Chronicle

Shakeup in the Bowery Lighting District

Posted: March 1, 2010 at 6:41 am

The storied lighting district of the lower Bowery will soon lose two big-time players.  Firstly, Bowery Interiors/Lite Elite at 148 Bowery is closing up shop for good.  Yellow-and-red signs hanging ominously in the windows advertise a fire sale of store inventory.

Located in the ground level of the historic SoHotel, Lite Elite has been in business for 40 years.  As New York Magazine notes, “it’s a 10,000 square-foot space along a stretch of Bowery that qualifies as a veritable Lighting Row.”  Their varied selection included everything on the proverbial spectrum, from traditional to the bizarre.

As if this wasn’t enough, just across the street at 151 Bowery, the J & P Lighting showroom is moving back to its Hicksville headquarters after fifteen years in the district.

Our neighborhood institutions continue to fade.  This unfortunate real estate shakeup at Bowery and Broome unlocks two valuable corner lots with moderate to heavy foot traffic.  It gives us pause to think what the replacement tenants will be.  Here’s hoping new light merchants move in.

In the nineteenth century, the Bowery became a lighting mecca to help supply the thriving theater business.  It’s now relegated to the area between Delancey and Grand.