Newly Restored, 59 Bleecker Pimps Levain Bakery and BAPE Boutique
The retail restoration of 59 Bleecker Street is complete. And with it, the requisite teaser signage of the new businesses moving in.
No more hardware stores. Instead, as first reported here, Levain Bakery is opening its first downtown outpost. The ad promises an “early 2020” delivery, which is more than six months from the initial summer 2019 goal. CorePower Yoga is also in the mix.
But the most recent newcomer here is BAPE, aka A Bathing Ape, the Japanese streetwear brand founded in 1993. They currently operate a store on Greene Street in SoHo.
The one-story corner building at 59 Bleecker was first constructed in 1921, and housed both a car service station and liquor store (at the same time). The structure was modified roughly sixty years later to include a second contiguous building. Landmark protections arrived in 1999 courtesy of the NoHo Historic District.
59 Bleecker St. in 1940, Photo: NYPL
Three years ago, though, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved plans by architects Beyer Blinder Belle to restore the existing building at 59 Bleecker, but also replace the non-original “garage” section with a one-story structure that includes aluminum and glass storefronts, plus fixtures for a “bracket sign” (homage to the old).
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