By Scott Etkin and Lisa Kava
Engine 74 of the New York City Fire Department will temporarily relocate from their headquarters at 120 West 83rd Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam, to Ladder 25 at 250 West 77th Street. 120 West 83rd has been the home of Engine 74 since 1888 and the building, built in the Renaissance and Romanesque Revival styles, is landmarked. The temporary relocation will begin at the end of August and last approximately 10 months. According to a notice from FDNY, “this relocation is necessary so the agency may update and improve the current facilities of Engine 74.”
“It will be tough leaving our small home on 83rd Street for close to a year,” senior firefighter John Keaveny told West Side Rag. “But the firehouse has needed a new floor and new windows for a long time. The floor is original from 1889, so we are excited for a new one. We are looking forward to being with the members of Ladder 25, they are a great group of firefighters. We know them well from company outings, so it will be like one big family when we eat and work together. It is a bigger firehouse and JT, our firehouse dog, will love the extra room to run around.”
Board30, a group fitness class that uses resistance bands, has opened a pop-up space at Nexa Pilates at 2273 Broadway on 82nd Street. The 30-minute classes combine cardio, strength training, and calisthenics. This is the first Board30 studio in the city and the pop-up will continue until Board30 finds a lease for a permanent space, likely this fall. A representative from Nexa Pilates told West Side Rag that “we could possibly have a relationship with each other in the future, but nothing has been solidified.” The Board30 instructor, Laura Thomases, has taught classes at the JCC on the Upper West Side. It is $40 per class and can be paid by Venmo.
Restore, a “hyper wellness” studio with high-tech equipment for rejuvenating your body, is coming to 2148 Broadway on the corner of 76th Street. Restore’s recovery services include cryotherapy – exposure to extreme cold temperatures for a few minutes at a time – infrared sauna and compression sleeves that circulate the blood in your legs. Restore categorizes the techniques it offers under nine “elements” of wellness: hydration, cold, rest, nourishment, movement, heat, light, oxygen, and connection. Based in Austin, Texas, Restore has over 100 franchise locations across the U.S., including on the Upper East Side and in Chelsea. It replaces a T-Mobile store.
Bond Vet has signed a lease at The Westly – the new cantilever building that’s still under construction – at 251 Broadway on 91st Street. The 2,000-square-foot space on the ground floor will have a veterinarian clinic and pet grooming service. Bond has an existing UWS location at 352 Amsterdam on 77th Street. The new space is anticipated to open towards the end of this year.
Skin Laundry NYC, a laser facial company, will be opening at 250 Columbus Avenue at 72nd Street in the former home of a Jeffrey Stein hair salon. Skin Laundry has locations in Midtown, Flatiron, Williamsburg ,and Tribeca. The company offers different types of laser facials such as “signature laser facials, carbon laser facials, fractional laser facials, and ultra duo laser facials.” They also sell anti-acne and anti-aging skin care products. (Thanks to Nicole and Tierney for the tips.)
Five Below, a discount chain with more than 1,000 stores across the country, will be opening at 805 Columbus Square near 100th Street, in the former home of Petco. Five Below sells products that cost five dollars or less and a small number of products priced between $6 and $25. Five Below sells toys and games, home decor, beauty products, arts and crafts, fitness products, pet supplies and more. (Thanks to Maureen for the tip.)
Sheesh. How many Vets do you need within three blocks of each other? There are now three located on 91-93 on each Avenue. Crazy.
That’s what I was thinking!
Bond vet raised 170 million From Warburg Pincus; small door Also has raised a lot of money. That kind of money can kill every other small veterinary office, Maybe that is the intent
I suspect that one of the more established clinics (no names, ahem) will close soon, service there having degraded over the last 20 years, and precipitously over the last 5.
If you mean Symphony Vet, I hope that’s the case…I used to take my dog there ~10 years ago, but the care declined so terribly that even though it’s around the corner from us, we have been taking our vets to Lincoln Square for the last 5 years…it will be nice to have another vet option close to us with Bond Vets
Yes, which one? I just moved to neighborhood and someone recommended Animal General but I wasn’t happy w them. Someone else recommended West side Vet on 83rd.
Brilliant Vet on Amsterdam is just super!
I second Brilliant Vet, Dr. Bishop is amazing. Brilliant Vet is not a corporate chain. Opening during the pandemic is not easy. I had a lot of issues with my dog and he got to the root of those issues and put her on it a good plan they also are not greedy. They will tell you what they think and they will respect your decision.
Which one?
The news of Five Below just makes me miss Flying Tiger even more
Flying Tiger was pure joy </3
The UWS (70s/80s) has basically become a high-end spa. In lieu of affordable grocery stores and interesting wares, we have 100 options for facial peels and fingernail painting, and “fitness” shops where you pay for someone to stretch your limbs for you or want you to pay more than a dollar per minute to tell you how to use an elastic band. Other options are to go out and pay $5 for a cookie and $4 for a drip coffee. It’s absurd and embarrassing at how vapid and useless the neighborhood has become.
(Granted this comes from someone with approx zero disposable income, and even less now that grocery prices are out of reach. )
If you feel so strongly about it, I suggest you go to all these businesses, ask for the owners/managers and explain to them that they are “absurd” and “embarrassing” despite the jobs they created and the taxes they pay, or the risks they take daily. Then please proceed to call the hundreds of employees these stores employ “vapid” and “useless”.
If anyone protests, just soften them up by explaining you have no disposable income but are really
Interested in “interesting wares”.
Let us know how this all goes.
Employers don’t “create jobs.”
It’s time for our society to drop this noxious phrase from our collective vocabulary.
Jobs are the place where capital and labor meet. No capital available: no job. No labor available: no job either (and no potential profit to capital).
Both capital and labor are required for there to be a job. Both.
Thank You for your comment.
Only physical retail worth bothering with nowadays are things that cannot be purchased online. Health, wellness, personal and beauty services rank high on that list
Supermarkets and grocery stores are tight margin businesses, and that was before rise of online. Worse good amount of inventory are perishables or things with set expiration dates. This means on any given day supermarkets and grocery stores must dispose of unsold stock.
For rest of it Manhattan like many other areas of NYC is simply changing to a demographic that skews wealthier. Businesses are just attempting to cater to that market.
Let’s trade! You can have my $1.00 drip coffees and lease in Coney Island for your UWS co-op you bought 45 years ago + neighborhood $4 coffees and spas.
It is sad indeed. We now have those and CBD shops. Apparently they are the only ones able to pay the rent.
Better than empty storefronts.
I have disposable income and have lived here for 45 year and I so agree with you.
We take our senior cat to Bond Vet on Amsterdam and they have been just amazing. Dr. Bryan Anderson is a gem.
Of all the things to go in that Petcoff space, Five Below had to be last on my list – what a waste. Three more spaces in that complex and I’m hoping for a good clothing store or some better restaurants (kills me that only Chipotle and Starbucks seem willing to venture off broadway). The last spaces will probably go to even more inexplicable schools.
Restore replaces a T-mobile store which replaced an REI adventure equipment store. Ironic that, if we had just kept our REI store, we would not need a spa to recover from our dearth of physical activity and cell-phone-induced bad posture and tension.
It was an EMS store, not REI. Great store, bought a lot of things there, much missed. Now the closest branch is hours away.
Oops, yes, EMS! My brain must be addled from lack of adventure 😉
The EMS flagship store was in that space for many years…not REI. EMS was amazing!
Yay 5 below! That store is so fun!
I agree:)
The public demands a picture of JT!
Memo to the NYC Fire Department: When you upgrade the Engine 7 headquarters on West 83rd St., please don’t obliterate the dalmatian fire hydrant. It makes me smile every time I pass this extraordinary little building. I’ve even seen kids pat its head as though it were a pet.
I love it too. It’s the work of TomBobNYC, we watched him paint it. He does amazingly whimsical street art- google him!
Skin Laundry sounds like a place Buffalo Bill would take his dry cleaning.
first I’m learning of Five Below : “sells toys and games…. arts and crafts, etc. for $5 !! + Good for our diverse economic community, too!! Miss Michael’s for A&C!
We need more openings on Broadway in the 90’s and 100’s.
I just saw a new pot store this morning on Bway around 112th I think? They had large amounts of pot, of buds, in big jars behind the counter when you first walk in with names and prices on them. The most blatant I’ve seen yet.
I went to Westside Vet for them to take a look at a red mark on my cat’s ear. Walked out $700 lighter and nothing wrong with the ear. Beware of their high prices and upselling.