Icon Realty Snaps up Hester Street Building for $6.4M
Real estate transactions don’t cease just because of a deadly virus and pandemic.
Real estate magnate, Icon Realty Management, just scooped up another Lower East Side property.
The twenty-unit multifamily walk-up at 61 Hester Street, formerly home to the Sweet Life candy shop on the ground floor, traded hands last week for $6.4 million. Margray Realty, which acquired the building in 1994, is listed as seller of record.
Icon Realty Management is notorious around the East Village and Lower East Side for its alleged “construction as harassment” techniques. Tenants often accuse the firm of aggressive attempts to clear out the rent stabilized properties in favor of luxury rents. It’s had an effect on commercial, too. Neighborhood stalwarts such as the Stage Restaurant and Allied Hardware on Second Avenue were some of Icon’s more high-profile victims.
Back in 2017, ICON was forced to settle with the city over its tactics: a $300,000 fine to the State of New York, and an additional $200,000 to HPD and DOB.
Recent Stories
Someone Sliced Away the Pride Flag from Sugar Sweet Sunshine
It’s not all rainbows for Sugar Sweet Sunshine. Already contending with a spate of garbage dumping on its doorstep, the sweets shop just lost its Pride flag in an apparent hate-driven action. It appears someone snipped the rainbow gay pride flag from the storefront of 126 Rivington Street. We’re told that it had hung here […]
Start of $1.45B East River Park Resiliency Project Delayed
The planned demolition of East River Park for the new coastal resiliency project is delayed, the city recently revealed. The initial scope of the $1.45 billion East Side Coastal Resiliency project pegged a start date of September 2020, when areas of the coastline would be roped off ahead of construction. That was the plan through […]
Elderly LES Woman Lived with Husband’s Corpse for Weeks
An elderly woman in the Seward Park Co-op on the Lower East Side had been living with her husband’s rotting corpse for the last two weeks, cops said. Alarmed neighbors yesterday noticed the foul stench wafting through their apartment building at 383 Grand Street and notified the authorities. Police responded at 11:30am and found the […]
Trees in East River Park Marked for ‘Demolition’
Over a thousand trees will be uprooted later this fall when the city commences its demolition and redevelopment of East River Park. Faux demolition flyers now dot the park to raise awareness of the impending arborcide for the controversial resiliency project. The bright-red bills announce trees as “marked for demolition by the mayor and City […]
Upside Pizza Heads to Little Italy, Replacing Pomodoro on Spring Street
Out with the old style, in with the new. Pomodoro Pizzeria, which shuttered at the outset of the pandemic, is to be replaced by the popular midtown slice shop, Upside Pizza. Founder Noam Grossman and partners Eli and Oren Halali (behind 2 Brothers and Taqueria Diana) together submitted an application to Community Board 2 for […]
