Bank of America Signage is up at Former ‘Diamond Corner’ on the Bowery
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This here is the brief epithet about the corporate invasion of the Bowery, visualized. Or, how Bank of America installed another branch in Chinatown.
News of its arrival at 88 Bowery preceded that of the wraparound, red-white-and-blue signage installed earlier this week. Gone is the plywood shed, too, deposed a few weeks ago to reveal the bland facade.
Indeed, we saw this coming for more than a year. Ever since Dr. Jay’s magnate Joseph Betesh acquired 88 Bowery – the property was part of the $62 million portfolio sale of eleven Bowery buildings – time was on the line for jewelers operating in the so-called Diamond Corner. Most of those businesses later relocated down the block to the Jewelry Exchange, leaving prime corner space for the plucking. All along the rumors spelled bank. And that’s precisely what happened. The separate stores were combined into one gargantuan footprint.
And now there are more than a half-dozen bank branches within spitting distance. The Bank of America is a block from TD Bank, Capital One, Chase Bank, East West Bank, and others.
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Diamond Corner, October 2013
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