Checking in on the Retail Restoration Project at 59 Bleecker Street

In the year since the dual departure of City Hats and Shapiro’s Hardware from Bleecker Street, the old NoHo corner spot has been under the knife. Shrouded in construction materials, the multimillion-dollar project to restore the century-old structure is now full throttle.

Contractors headlong into gutting and chiseling, as evidenced by a recent walkby.

The following rendering of the facelifted Bleecker Street landmark is also attached to the site…

Rendering of the new 59 Bleecker St.

The effort to restore 59 Bleecker Street (at Lafayette) is years in the making. Back in July 2014, its immediate neighbors Kaufman Shoe Repair Supplies and Downtown Floor Supplies – area stalwarts with a combined 100 years at this location – relocated elsewhere in the city, stoking fears of more luxury construction. It later came out that a nine-story development was positioning itself here, yet never materialized.

Instead, 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 alluminum and glass storefronts, plus fixtures for a “bracket sign” (homage to the old).

The one-story 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.