Maisels Moving out of the Germania Bank Building on the Bowery

This image has been archived or removed.

It’s actually happening. The day has come.

Photographer Jay Maisel is moving out of his historic mansion on the Bowery. The graffiti mecca known as the Germania Bank Building, where the family has lived for almost fifty years. A muthafuckin half-century.

Belongings are now leaving the premises, though, with moving trucks having become a somewhat regular appearance in the last couple weeks. And yesterday afternoon saw the arrival of a Moishe’s detachment outside 190 Bowery to unload more boxes and furnishings.

Real estate magnate Aby Rosen (RFR Realty) has been trying to flip the purported $50 million acquisition for months, even while no official documentation of the sale is on file with the city. Massey Knakal continues to rep as exclusive broker, circulating brochures of the 37,000 square-foot property with the following rendering of a graffiti-free building:

This image has been archived or removed.

Developers’ wet dream of 190 Bowery, Photo: Massey Knakal

Some sort of condo conversion is likely expected for whomever purchases the 1898 landmark (designated 2005).

According to property records, Maisel purchased the Germania Bank Building in 1966 for $102,000. As the urban lore goes, the artist and family refused to scrub the graffiti because the city allegedly rebuffed his attempts to do the same in the bad old days of the Bowery.

This image has been archived or removed.

Photo: Curbed