Rendering of the new design by architect Mark Markowitz. Photo of rendering courtesy of Emily Frost/DNAinfo.
Big Nick, meet Big Croissant.
Big Nick’s Burger and Pizza Joint will be replaced by a pastry shop, according to a consultant for the Hotel Belleclaire who presented plans for the space to a community board committee this week, DNAinfo reported. That doesn’t mean that the hotel won’t also be trying to open a bar (as we reported last month) in the other two spaces it controls on Broadway. But it does look like the Big Nick’s space itself will be cooking up baked goods. The name of the new bakery was not disclosed.
The Bra Smyth and News will remain open for the time being, but it looks like they will eventually be replaced; the hotel wants to turn the entire corner of 77th and Broadway into a more standardized metal and glass storefront as seen above. The hotel also wants to add an entryway to the hotel on Broadway, a concept that the community board committee didn’t like. In fact, they rejected the project by a 4-2 vote (the full board will review the plan next month but the final decision is up to the Landmarks Preservation Commission).
“We’re kind of making it pristine and prissy and sanitizing it,” said committee co-chair Gabrielle Palitz. “Retail isn’t supposed to be quite so sanitary.”
Board member Ping Kwan went even further in his criticisms.
“It looks horrible,” he said. “[The design] looks like stone floating on glass…It is completely historically inaccurate.”
And what happens to West Side Market in this “sanitizing” of a wonderful block? The picture shown at the Community Board meeting (reproduced above)did not show any produce out in front of West Side Market. That would be a terrible thing to lose.
What a travesty! OK, so we’ve lost Big Nick’s. But, does the renovation HAVE to look like any – and every – other retail space???
Stick to your guns, Ping Kwan!
That looks really gross. And what about West Side Market? It’s all we have left. Please, please don’t take it away.
Thank god the long national nightmare – walking more that 30 feet for a piece of pastry – will soon be over. Just curious how the cash flow from a bakery covers the $60,000 per month rent they were requesting from Nick (not to mention and payroll, utilities, insurance , taxes etc). Walter White was surely in the wrong business.
I’ve lived in the ‘hood for over 30 years and never cared for Big Nick’s. But I do not think a pastry shop is any improvement. And Westside Market, where I mostly shop, sad to realize that their days are certainly numbered.
Some may not have cared for Nicks’s but many of us loved it. The decision to put in a pastry shop I will wager is a stop gap. It will be a bar soon! As to the Westside Market if that goes residents will be death another blow in terms of basic services. But then I guess we can all get our maids to shop for us or better yet have those Fresh Direct delivery people idle their trucks in the street while they smoke cigarettes and allow the food to age in the sun.
Hear! Hear!
What a shame. Space prices are way too brutal to support local shops to thrive. Without it, there will be no economy in a long run.
Westside Market? Or… you could walk two blocks south to Fairway & Citarella. It’s not like Westside is actually cheaper than Fairway (in my experience, each has a few things that are notably mispriced vs. the other).
I miss Big Nick’s too. And this rendering is as ugly as I have come to expect.
No way that selling pastry will cover a $60,000/month rent plus expences!! Even Cronuts at $20. a piece will cut the dough. The news stand has a long lease (when I asked last week), so it would take a mighty big buyout!! Maybe they will do what TD Bank did at W. 88th St/Broadway — they completely paid for new stores (all the renovations) when they “relocated” the FIVE STORES to surrounding builings.
CB7 has NO POWER!! This landlord will do whatever they want to do!
Please let’s respect the integrity of the architecture of this beautiful landmark building.
where is big nick’s going? I want my burgers!