This is the Glassy Condo Building Replacing Streit’s Matzo on Rivington Street

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What will replace Streit’s, Photo: Volley Studio

Here now, on the eve of Passover, a glimpse at what will replace the former Streit’s Matzo factory on Rivington Street. In a johnny-come-lately story published by the New York Times about the Ben Shaoul mega-condo at 196 Orchard Street (“You call it gentrification, I call it ‘cleaning it up,’”), author Ronda Kaysen ends with a bit about the 90-year-old matzo business.

We already knew that a seven-story condo building will rise in place of these historic tenements. But until now, there was no visual indication of the final product. Well, it’s now released; more glass and steel to blight the neighborhood. A clash of context, if you will.

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As previously reported, there will be 45 one- and two-bedroom apartments, including four duplexes on the seventh/eighth floor. Building amenities include bike room, gym, laundry, storage, and rooftop terrace.. Sales begin in May, according to the dispatch, with one-bedrooms starting at around $975,000. Demolition should commence in the next couple weeks.

The condo’s design, with 13,000 square feet of retail, will be clad in glass, a modern break from the brick buildings that stood there before. Developers plan to decorate the lobby with memorabilia from the original building. Other salvaged objects will be housed in a museum at the new Streit’s factory, which is being built in Rockland County, N.Y.

“You have to try to preserve at least some link to the past,” said Arthur R. Stern, the chief executive of Cogswell Lee Development, which is developing 150 Rivington Street with Gluck+, which is also the architect for the project. “That’s ultimately what made the city what it is.”

Cogswell Realty purchased the assemblage of 148-152 Rivington last year for $30.5 million. Streit’s subsequently purchased a new facility up in Rockland County, its first move in ninety years.