A longtime hub for Regency armchairs, Chippendale chests and Louis XV-style tables may be on its last legs.
Earlier this month a developer acquired the Greenwich Village building that for nearly a century housed Charles Cheriff Galleries with plans to convert the 7-story site into housing. The move has in turn helped shrink the antiques district around University Place, which teemed with about two dozen shops in the 1970s but is down to just a handful today.
“It’s sad, because it’s the place where our family has been since the 1930s,” Alan Wachman said of his four-generation family business. “This was home.”
Wachman likely exited with his head held high. His prewar building, located at 84 University Place near East 11th Street, sold for $11.3 million, a solid haul when considering his family paid around $500,000 for the 14,900-square-foot commercial structure in 1981, or the equivalent of $1.8 million today when adjusting for inflation. And Charles Cheriff, which specializes in French furniture that glimmers with gold-leaf detailing, did not call it quits but rather moved to Long Island City.
Renting 19th-century chairs to period dramas like HBO’s "The Gilded Age" has been a bright spot for the company. But “people’s tastes have changed,” said Wachman, who works with his brother Stephen and son Jonathan. “They’re not entertaining at home and not willing to buy special pieces.”
In a sense, Charles Cheriff may have overstayed its welcome in the district, which once stretched from about East 10th to East 13th streets and University Place to Fourth Avenue. Indeed, for years now expensive condos, trendy chain restaurants and upscale boutiques have been creeping into the neighborhood, much of which is not considered an historic district, which might have checked development.
And it perhaps should not come as a surprise. Several other neighborhoods once associated with a single industry—Chelsea’s flower district, the Garment District and especially the Meatpacking District—have few traces left of their historic selves.
Some antiques shops do hang on by University. Survivors include Seidenberg Antiques at 36 E. 12th St. and Hyde Park Antiques at 836 Broadway, though the latter isn’t long for that location. The Karr family, which has owned the store’s 6-story building since the 1980s, unloaded it in 2021 to developer ZG Capital for $39.3 million, according to the city register, and ever since has leased its space there as a tenant.
And ZG, which is renovating the landmark office building, has not extended the store’s lease past next year. “We’re not sure yet where we will go,” said Rachel Karr, whose father Bernard Karr founded the shop in 1965. “But the times and the business have changed.”
84 University Place
This 7-story Italianate building, whose facade is somewhat shrouded with dark-toned fire escapes, was home to Charles Cheriff Galleries from the 1930s until this year. The antiques store specializes in French furniture made in the late 19th century to resemble classics from the 18th-century era of Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI. Earlier this year brothers Stephen and Alan Wachman sold the site for $11.3 million to developer Mark Guindi, the CEO of GD Capital Group, who plans on turning the building into a six-unit rental that has retail space on the ground floor. Guindi did not return a call for comment. The Wachmans, whose grandfather Charles founded the business in 1924 after emigrating from Russia, have relocated their 3,000-piece collection to 22-19 41st Ave. in Long Island City near the Ed Koch-Queensboro Bridge. With Charles Cheriff’s departure from University Place, a longtime antiques district in the neighborhood has almost disappeared.
83 University Place
This 11-story, 191,000-square-foot building from 1890 seems to have once been a manufacturing building. Textile and garment companies were early tenants, according to news clips. But in recent decades, No. 83 has served as an office building catering to PR firms, doctors, insurance companies, fintech start-ups and co-working providers. Its most visible contribution, though, might be the numerous fast-casual style restaurants that ring the building’s ground floor. A two-year-old location of the popular and quickly-growing Naya chain, which serves falafel and hummus dishes at 11 locations in Manhattan, is here. The building’s ownership hasn’t changed since at least the 1960s, according to property records. It seems to involve members of the Manley family, though a trust has controlled No. 83, which also uses the addresses 95 University Place and 41 E. 11th St., since 2005. The firm that runs the building day to day is the Thomas F. Campenni Company. It is currently listing a 20,000-square-foot berth on the fifth floor for a rent of $40 per square foot annually.
86 University Place
The history of this site is as colorful as the strings of flights that twinkle in its downstairs Mexican restaurant. Once the home of Benjamin Field, a prominent hospital philanthropist, the building later housed the human hair wig business of German immigrant Bernhard Mittelstaedt, according to Village Preservation, an influential nonprofit advocacy group. His name remains carved on the cornice. During Prohibition No. 86 housed a speakeasy, and in the 1940s it was home to a lesbian bar called the Bagatelle, accounts show. The current eatery, whose name El Cantinero means “the bartender” in Spanish, opened in the early 1990s. Its 3,500-square-foot two-level berth pours margaritas seven days a week. The 5-story property, which also features four apartments, has changed hands several times in recent decades. In the most recent transaction from 2015, New Jersey investor Lewis Lustbader sold No. 86 to Mark Lundy of Long Island firm Gould Investors for $13.7 million. Lundy borrowed $6.8 million for the transaction from Florida-based BankUnited, the city register shows.
82 University Place
Cedar Tavern, whose crowd in the abstract expressionist heyday of the 1950s might have had the highest number of artists in the city’s history, was based first at 24 University Place. It was dislodged by development in the 1960s and wound up at this address soon afterwards. Bob Dylan was among the new site’s early habitués. Amid the frenzy of the mid-2000s condo boom, tavern owner Michael Diliberto took a turn as a developer and added seven floors atop the existing structure to create a seven-unit condo, sales of which nabbed him $16.4 million, according to its offering plan. A stipulation of that plan was to not allow bars again, and the downstairs retail space offers bikini waxes today. The 3-bedroom duplex penthouse, which has a terrace, traded for about $4 million in 2023. It sits “just steps away from Whole Foods,” its ad said, “making it the perfect location.”
90 University Place
Although this 3-story plain-fronted building may look unassuming, it played a starring role in the area’s bohemian history. It contained the studio of photographer Arthur Swoger, known for his portraits of the poets and abstract expressionist painters who imbibed at Cedar Tavern, a nexus of the downtown art world when it was at University and East Ninth Street, according to historical accounts. (The bar’s building later came down to make way for the massive Brevoort East apartment complex.) Swoger’s subjects included painters Willem de Kooning and Joan Mitchell and poet Frank O’Hara, sometimes drinking, sometimes in their studios. No. 90 has had the same owners for decades, records indicate, and they seem to include members of the Erlitz family. But the building’s retail spaces turned over frequently and have included a housewares store, jazz bar and noodle shop through the years. In 1978 one of the city’s first sushi joints, Japonica, moved in before decamping in 1991 to a larger berth at 100 University Place. But when a wrecking ball claimed No. 100 a decade ago, Japonica returned to its No. 90 berth, according to the restaurant news site Eater. An outpost of the café chain The Grey Dog occupies the other narrow storefront.
99 University Place
The Textile Workers Union of America owned and operated this ornate 10-story Beaux Arts building in the mid-20th century, around when the area near Union Square was a base for labor organizations. The word “Union” in the park’s name, however, refers to its location at the merger of several roads. In 1991 local landlord Bijan Nassi purchased No. 99 from TWUA for $2.4 million, according to the city register, and the 41,500-square-foot site has mostly served as a Class C office building for small companies since then. But Nassi did not pry off the facade’s metal “TWUA Building” letters until around 2017, according to photos from Google Maps. Fashion giant Ralph Lauren operated stores in the retail space in recent years, including for its Rugby brand and Denim & Supply offshoots. Cncpts, a store dedicated to skate-wear fashion that sells sneakers and caps, occupies the 2,500-square-foot berth today. Nassi, who has appeared on the public advocate’s worst landlords list, faced foreclosure on the site in 2022 after defaulting on a $10.5 million mortgage note but squared away his debts the following year, according to court records.
21 E. 12th St.
One of the most beloved (and only) bowling alleys in Manhattan for years, Bowlmor Lanes rumbled at this site from 1938 to 2014. Then-Vice President Richard Nixon hurled balls there in 1958. After it shuttered, owner William Macklowe Co., headed by longtime developer William Macklowe’s son Billy Macklowe, demolished the site and its sidewalk stores to put up a 22-story, block-long condo and retail complex. Billy Macklowe, who partnered with Goldman Sachs on the project, earned $304 million from sales of the building’s 52 homes, which are mostly 1- to 4-bedroom units, according to the condo’s offering plan. Closings began in 2019, though the retail spaces, which line a wide podium under the tower that uses the address 110 University Place, took longer to fill. Tenants in them today include a wine bar from the Serafina restaurant group that opened in the fall. Tom Shannon, who bought Bowlmor in 1997 but had to exit when the site sold, has since become a bowling mogul, buying other alleys like the Lucky Strike line in 2023. His Bowlero Corp. today owns 12,000 lanes across the country.
Community opposition to the Related Cos.’ casino proposal at Hudson Yards could give a boost to the Times Square bid spearheaded by rival developer SL Green Realty.
“I’d counted out Times Square,” a local elected official told Crain’s on the condition of anonymity. “But in a world in which Hudson Yards is dead and the other three [Manhattan] bids are not sophisticated then maybe we’re back to considering Times Square.”
SL Green has teamed up with Caesars Entertainment and Roc Nation to develop a casino at 1515 Broadway, a 54-story building it owns.
CEO Marc Holliday told Crain’s on Tuesday his casino would be the most conveniently located of any proposal and help draw crowds back to Times Square, where pedestrian traffic remains 40% below 2019 levels, according to the latest data from the Times Square Alliance. The casino would create more demand than it can accommodate, Holliday said, so nearby hotels and restaurants would benefit and his bid has the support of almost 200 organizations, including Actors’ Equity, Laborers’ Local 79, and Alicart Restaurant Group, operator of Carmine’s and Virgil’s BBQ. The bid is also supported by property owners including RFR Realty and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.
“I think we have massive community support for this project, more than any other bid right now by a wide margin,” Holliday said.
Still, opposition appears to be growing. Last month three new groups joined the No Times Square Casino Coalition, which has more than 20 members including the Manhattan Plaza Tenants Association, Sardi’s and, perhaps most significantly, the Broadway League, a group that represents producers with the resources to fight developers. In May the coalition said a survey of 400 Midtown residents showed 71% opposed a Times Square casino.
Such opposition could discourage state officials from putting a casino in Times Square because under state law a community must demonstrate support for the idea first.
Times Square is far from the only alternative for a Manhattan casino. Silverstein Properties has its own casino bid for the far west side, while Soloviev Group has proposed one on a long-empty site near the United Nations. In between those two is Hudson’s Bay Co.’s bid to build a casino atop the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship, across the street from St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
And over at Hudson Yards, Related is hardly conceding the battle. A Related executive said the developer has met 10 times with Friends of the High Line, a group that opposes a Hudson Yards casino, and “made meaningful amendments to our proposal in direct response to concerns they raised.”
State officials aren’t expected to determine where downstate casinos licenses land until late next year.
A group of businesses that administer a popular state-run home care program is taking legal action against the state Health Department over a payment overhaul it says could worsen a shortage of home care workers in New York.
The industry group Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Association of New York State filed a lawsuit in an Albany state court on Monday stating that the Department of Health unlawfully changed how Medicaid reimburses businesses that administer the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, a home care model that allows people to hire and train their own caregivers.
The changes, set to take effect on Aug. 1, could slash $200 million from state Medicaid payments to fiscal intermediaries, which are businesses that manage payroll and conduct administrative tasks for homecare aides and consumers. The home care industry says the cuts could result in lower home care wages and reduced access to care within the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program.
State officials are trying to rein in spending on the $9 billion program following a decade of unprecedented growth. It has swelled by more than 1,200% due to loosened rules delegating who could provide caregiving.
The upcoming reimbursement changes are set to implement a three-tiered payment system for agencies that administer the home care program based on the number of care hours consumers get. The monthly rates will also split up reimbursements for direct care and administrative costs, which are currently paid to agencies in one lump sum.
The Health Department made the changes based on feedback from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, according to a notice on its website. But the companies allege that the Health Department unveiled the changes in an “unusual” way, presenting them at a meeting with health plans in May without their input.
The industry fears that cuts to reimbursement will hamper them from covering the costs of not only training aides and managing payroll, but also direct care, said Laura Cardwell, director of operations at the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Association of New York State.
“The real-world impact of this is going to be pay cuts,” Cardwell said.
Reimbursement changes for home care agencies often result in slashes in pay for home care aides, which Cardwell said will exacerbate an existing shortage in home care workers, specifically outside of New York City.
Six home care agencies, including Bengal Home Care in Jackson Heights, Home Choice in Parkchester and Marton Care in Williamsburg have signed on to the lawsuit. The industry is petitioning the court to stop the reimbursement changes.
Asked about the allegations, Health Department spokeswoman Cadence Acquaviva said that the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit comes as the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance program faces upheaval from changes in the state budget. Gov. Kathy Hochul spearheaded a proposal to whittle down the number of businesses and nonprofits administering the program from the roughly 700 that do so currently to just one in an effort to cut costs of the program.
Roughly 250,000 people in New York use the home care program and require care from 300,000 personal care aides, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also follows a similar case won by the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Association of New York State in 2019 to change reimbursement rates without following regulatory protocols.
CORONA HEALTH CENTER: The New York City Department of Design and Construction and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene broke ground Wednesday on a $10.5 million renovation of Corona Health Center in Queens. The project will focus on the main entrance, lobby, and building façade and is expected to make the 1939 building more accessible. The plan also includes a total renovation of the center’s 6,500 square foot cellar and is expected to be completed in 2026.
HEALTH VENDING MACHINES: The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has quietly ended plans to complete the rollout of its free public health vending machine program, which offers medical products like Covid tests and naloxone, The City reported Wednesday. The program, which launched in 2022 and was intended to expand to 10 vending machines citywide, closed in May after only four machines were unveiled. Those machines, in Brooklyn and Queens, were seeded with $750,000 from the city and managed by local organizations.
CORRECTION: This has been updated to reflect the program will not expand beyond the existing four vending machines. The four existing vending machines will remain open for use.
More than 200 nursing homes are suing the state over new Medicaid reimbursement rates they say jilt them out of compensation for services already rendered.
In a suit filed July 18 in state Supreme Court in Albany, the petitioners allege the state Department of Health misapplied rates tailored for last year’s services to the first quarter of 2024, when the homes say their reimbursement should have increased.
The rate, known as the “case-mix adjustment,” offers nursing homes greater remuneration based on the intensity of care provided, with higher-acuity residents drawing higher compensation. The rate is intended to incentivize nursing homes to admit residents with more demanding health care needs to avoid them languishing in hospitals where the cost of care is greater.
In recent years, the rate has been recalculated every six months – on January 1 and July 1 – based on the latest acuity levels. But on June 28 the Health Department submitted a request to the federal government to change the methodology it uses to determine the rate and, in the meantime, to freeze the rate at the July 2023 level. But state law does not permit such changes to apply before the first day of the quarter in which it is announced, the lawsuit claims. In this case, that date is April 1, 2024, meaning any reimbursements for services rendered before that date should be based on the intensity of patient needs at the end of 2023, the suit contends.
“Petitioners made their decisions with respect to admitting patients on the basis of and in reliance on that reimbursement policy,” the lawsuit states, referring to the previous methodology.
The lawsuit alleges Health Commissioner James McDonald “illegally, arbitrarily, capriciously” froze reimbursement rates at July 1, 2023 levels and called the Department’s June 28 proposal to change the reimbursement methodology “misleading and inaccurate.”
“While it purported to have an effective date of April 1, 2024…, in reality it proposed to make changes to the State’s Medicaid reimbursement methodology retroactive to January 1, 2024,” the filing states.
The petitioners, all members of Albany-based New York State Health Facilities Association, an association of long-term care and assisted living facilities, are asking the court to strike down the new rate regime and recalculate reimbursements, along with any attorney’s fees for the lawsuit.
“If they were to go back to July, they are really shorting the payment to these providers,” said Stephen Hanse, president and CEO of the Health Facilities Association.
The Department of Health declined to comment on ongoing litigation, according to spokeswoman Cadence Acquaviva.
Because each nursing home has a different size, patient population, and reimbursement rate, the coalition has not determined what specific dollar figure it is seeking.
The state is expected to file its response with the court in the coming weeks, after which a court date can be set. While Hanse is concerned about what methodology the state may ultimately come up with, the coalition does not have grounds to oppose any future changes.
“It’s nothing we can really challenge legally at the present time,” Hanse said.
Empire State Realty Trust, a property owner focused on New York City buildings, struck $195 million in deals for buildings in Brooklyn, expanding its bet on a key shopping corridor in Williamsburg.
The company, which owns the Empire State Building, agreed to two deals to buy retail spots on North 6th Street in Williamsburg, with one transaction totaling $103 million and the other amounting to $92 million, according to a statement Wednesday. The all-cash deals haven’t yet closed.
The purchases will help the company build out its presence on North 6th Street, where it already owns some retail spots leased to tenants including cosmetic goods company Glossier and facial studio Glowbar.
The recent “transactions are consistent with our strategy to recycle capital and balance sheet capacity from non-core suburban assets into strong NYC assets,” the company said in the statement.
Empire State Realty also announced Wednesday core funds from operations of 24 cents per share in the second quarter, which matched the average analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg. The company said it would disclose more about the Williamsburg purchases once the deals have closed.