It’s Another Passover without Streit’s Matzo on the Lower East Side
Remember the Streit’s Matzo factory!
Now four years removed, and with a glassy monstrosity in its place, it’s actually crazy reminiscing that a fully fledged matzo factory operated on Rivington Street for ninety years.
Ninety years until 2015. That year was the final Passover on the Lower East Side for the family-owned Streit’s Matzo. The next summer – in July 2016 – the tenements at 148-154 Rivington Street met the wrecking ball.
With the new condo building operational, there is no longer that sweet smell of baking matzo permeating the neighborhood.
March 2014
As previously reported, the family-owned Streit’s Matzo business sold its original factory at 148-154 Rivington Street to Cogswell Realty in January 2015 for $30.5 million. (A prior deal to sell the properties for $25 million fell through in 2008.) The blinding eyesore of a replacement consists of 45 one-, two-, and three-bedroom condos, including four duplex penthouses on the seventh/eighth floor. Building amenities include bike room, gym, laundry, storage, and rooftop terrace with outdoor fireplace and kitchen.
Matzo Factory operations are now headquartered in Rockland County.
Streit’s history and the move upstate were the subject of the 2016 documentary, Matzo and the American Dream, which recently signed a deal with PBS.
March 2014
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