For every Vanishing New York diehard and mourner of drowned dive bars, there's an icy horizon-gazer who cheers every time a phone booth is replaced with a WiFi charging station.
The latter probably won't take issue with the luxury mini-mall and office building that is now poised to replace the old BP Station on Houston Street that for decades has welcomed straphangers out of the subway at Broadway-Lafayette. We've known for a while that this day was probably coming, that BP would go the way of the gas stations on Bowery and Bond, Bowery and Third, Bowery and Fourth and Houston and Broadway—now a loft, the Bowery Hotel, BBar, and an Adidas store respectively.
But now the lot's future is coming into view, and the renderings are about as expensive and bland-looking as you would expect.
The glassy, 80,000 square foot mixed-use building will be planted with lots of "indigenous" plant species because, as the developers point out, "People feel good when they are connected to nature." It will also have an outdoor terrace that people who are employed by companies that can afford luxury office space will enjoy:
And because we just can't get enough mixed-use office space, the Wall Street Journal reports that Madison Capital and Vornado Realty Trust just closed on neighboring 606 Broadway last week—the one-time home, as EV Grieve points out, of the Honest Boy Fruit Stand—for $25.8 million.
"There are many imitators but there is really one SoHo," Madison partner Richard Wagman told WSJ, celebrating his purchase, which is located steps from such distinctive SoHo icons as Crate & Barrel, Chase Bank, Chipotle, and Best Buy.
The gas station transformation will reportedly be complete by 2018, during which time we'll all probably start feeling nostalgic for gas stations.
