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Flatiron is a College Town

Top Ranked Baruch & Touro Colleges Bring an Influx of Fall Students

Not many think of Manhattan as a college town, but a college town vibe may come to mind when you think of Greenwich Village and Morningside Heights. Well, add the Flatiron District to that list.  In addition to its 40-plus wellness studios, unbelievable array of casual and fine dining, and reputation as NYC’s Tech epicenter, Flatiron is home to thousands of college students attending Baruch College (CUNY) and Touro College. This summer, both schools received coveted spots on MONEY Magazine’s 2017-18 Best Colleges list.

At the front of the pack, Baruch College was named the #1 “Best Public College” in the country and ranked #2 on MONEY’s “Best Colleges for Your Money”. Baruch’s ability to boast successful alumni coupled with low levels of student debt, and a high rate of social mobility, landed the institution MONEY’s highest rankings. Over 18,000 students from 164 countries, 40% of which are first-generation college students, attend Baruch. The hard work of 500 full-time faculty members and over 700 administrative and personnel professionals allows Baruch to achieve these accolades. Adding to Baruch’s appeal? The Arts. The Baruch Performing Arts Center is home to theater, dance, and literary productions, and the Sidney Mishkin Gallery routinely showcases museum-quality traveling exhibits in addition to its permanent collection of over 300 artworks from the 20^th Century. Both students and Flatiron neighbors are able to take advantage of the cultural enrichment the school offers.

Not to be outdone, Touro College earned the title of MONEY’s #1 “Value-Added All-Star”. This list awards schools that best help students achieve significant upward mobility, looking specifically at graduation rates, student loan repayment rates, and alumni earnings for a given student population. Touro, founded in 1971 with a mission to provide a stellar education to the Jewish community, is the youngest school included on Money Magazine’s list. Touro College’s student body is increasingly diverse, with enrollment bringing 10,000 students into the Flatiron District. The school also boasts more than  200 full-time professors and academics on its faculty. Touro’s Graduate School of Jewish Studies, School of Health Sciences, New York School of Career and Applied Sciences (NYSCAS), Graduate School of Education, and Graduate School of Social Work offer exceptional opportunities for working professionals.

The common thread between these Flatiron institutions: the best bang for your buck. 2016 college graduates averaged $37,172 in student loan debt (via Student Debt Hero). Graduates from both Baruch College and Touro College enter the workforce owing considerably less ($8,500 on average at Baruch, $10,849 at Touro) and, helped by ready access to incredible internship and work experience opportunities in New York City, within five years, earn on average roughly $50,000 per year.

In the coming weeks, as the neighborhood prepares for fall, expect an influx of freshmen, upper classmen, and graduate students returning to their college town, the Flatiron District, ready to hit the books. And thanks to the education they’re receiving at either Baruch or Touro College, we already know they’ll be set up for success.

Flatiron Summer Series Recap

The Flatiron Summer Series, free public programming -- for the community, by the community -- on the Flatiron Public Plazas, came to a close last week.

The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership continued to program eight full weeks of free events, which included "Tech Tuesdays" technology classes, fitness classes for "Wellness Wednesdays," and nostalgic games, activities, and live entertainment on "Throwback Thursdays." New to this year's Throwback Thursdays: two Summer Scoops events with free gelato & frozen custard. Over the course of the summer, over 3,600 people attended the programs.

• The program kicked-off with a Summer Solstice Sundial in partnership with the National Museum of Mathematics, on the Summer Solstice -  Wednesday, June 21 - participants became a human sundial using the solstice sun and their bodies to tell the time.
  
  
• On "Tech Tuesdays," classes were taught by instructors from neighborhood businesses, including General Assembly, which has been a program partner since 2012.
  
  
• In partnership with Athleta Flatiron, fitness enthusiasts worked out in free classes on "Wellness Wednesdays". Each session was taught by instructors from local studios. Post-workout, participants received free smoothies from Flatiron Green Cafe. 
  
  
• Nostalgic games could be found on the North Plaza on "Throwback Thursdays" for some lunchtime fun. Local non-profit The Center for Book Arts joined us at noon to offer free book-making activities for kids. In the evening, local musicians & improv troupes offered all-ages entertainment. Wonder Photo Shop provided Instamax cameras for our final event, allowing attendees to take home a memory of the series. 
  

Thank you to our partners for a successful program this year! 

• AKT
• Athleta Flatiron
• Baruch College Division of Continuing and Professional Studies
• Metropolitan Room
• Eataly
• exhale Flatiron
• Flatiron Green Cafe
• General Assembly
• Gotham Jiu Jitsu
• National Museum of Mathematics
• New York Health & Racquet Club
• NY Personal Training
• Shake Shack
• SIN Workouts
• TADA! Youth Theater
• The Center for Book Arts
• The Jazz Gallery
• The Peoples Improv Theater
• ThoughtMatter
• Touro College Graduate School of Technology
• Wonder Photo Shop by Fujifilm

Interested in participating in Flatiron Summer Series next year? Email info (at) flatironbid (dot) org.

Flatiron Shared Street Ribbon Cutting

The New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), along with the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership and the Madison Square Park Conservancy, unveiled New York City's first-ever 'Shared Street' on Broadway between West 24th and West 25th Streets on August 9.

“With so few cars moving so slowly, pedestrians and cyclists can now take up all the space they need," said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg.

The project, which included resurfacing of Broadway, Fifth Avenue, Worth Square, and the Flatiron North Public Plaza, has been under construction since late April. The redesigned area includes enhanced public space and pedestrian circulation in and around the North Plaza with direct access to Madison Square Park.

“When we met with the local community to hear their concerns, we weren’t surprised to learn of the changes they wanted to make this area safer for pedestrians and cyclists. It’s a space where motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists all travel together safely, with cars traveling at a reduced speed and pedestrians having more options to circulate in an area,” stated DOT Manhattan Borough Commissioner Luis Sanchez.

The Shared Street features signage depicting the pedestrian right-of-way and vehicular speed limit of 5 miles per hour as well as a plaza-like surface treatment. In addition to the shared street, the project included more robust and direct crosswalks, painted curb extensions to shorten Fifth Avenue and Broadway crossing distances, and protected bike lanes.

DOT plans to relocate the Citi Bike station at West 24th Street & Broadway to the shared street in an effort to further accommodate those navigating the Flatiron District on foot. 

New Neighbor: Cote

The Flatiron District is thrilled to be the new home of the first Korean steakhouse in NYC. Restaurateur Simon Kim of Michelin-starred Piora has opened Cote (pronounced kōt) on West 22nd Street. Named for the Korean word for "flower", a term also used to describe an intensely marbled specialty steak cut, Cote is Kim's follow up to Piora's "blossom" —a sophisticated restaurant that marries the interaction and flavors of Korean barbecue with the prime cuts and exceptional wines of the American steakhouse.

"I have been looking for a space in the Flatiron District for more than two and half years! Downtown has been growing and while 14th street used to be considered the border of downtown, it is now 23rd Street that serves as that border. It has an exciting balance of offices, restaurants and residential," says Kim. "The most exciting booming of the restaurant scene is in the Flatiron District! From NoMad, Shake Shack, Sugarfish to Eataly, it has something for everyone!"

Designed by New York-based architecture firm MNDPC, the sleek space features accents of red oak and brass. A marble-topped standing bar is positioned between two dining spaces, where soapstone-topped grill tables and convivial booths and benches set the stage for the meal ahead.

Steakhouse mainstays such as shrimp cocktail, wedge salad, steak tartare, and thick-cut bacon are served alongside traditional Korean dol-sot bibimbop and spicy casseroles. M. Wells Steakhouse alum David Shim's menu features USDA Prime steaks, such as ribeye and sirloin, dry-aged on site, and specialty beef cuts such as flatiron and marinated short rib. At the heart of the experience is the prix fixe Butcher's Feast, a play on the traditional Korean barbecue spread featuring ban chan, salad, lettuce wraps, savory egg souffle, stews and four prime cuts of beef that arrive pre-sliced to grill at the table. Housemade soft serve completes the feast. To drink, craft soju is as at home as martinis and old-fashioneds on head bartender Devin Kennedy's menu, and all wines by the glass are poured out of magnums from an extensive 600-bottle list curated by beverage director Victoria James, also of Piora. 

As the first Korean steakhouse in NYC, Kim says, "Cote is excited to call Flatiron its home. Cote's mission to marry the classic steakhouse experience with the Korean barbecue experience truly embraces the essence of Flatiron: a perfect balance of classic and progressiveness - proper and fun!"

The restaurant is open Monday through Wednesday 5 p.m.-11 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday 5 p.m.-12 a.m. Closed on Sundays. 

Cote, 16 West 22nd Street, (212) 401-7986

July News Roundup

The Flatiron District brought the heat in July (pun intended). Noteworthy restaurants received critical acclaim, businesses celebrated big milestones, and commercial office space launched renovations. Stay up-do-date with the latest Flatiron District News with the BID’s monthly roundup of notable highlights and be sure to check out the final two weeks of our 2017 Flatiron Summer Series.

• Several of the district's restaurants received praise for their innovative food and drink. Cosme's brunch was described as "delicious, quite comforting, and sublime" (via IJustWantToEat) and its most talked about dessert, the Corn Husk Meringue, "composes the perfect bite" and is worthy of a spot on your Instagram page, and Cote's upscale Korean Barbeque was featured on the list of trendy spots that won't ruin your diet (via New York Post). The bar at Hill Country Barbeque Market was listed as one of New York City's greatest happy hour deals (via Eater NY). The district is also excited to welcome Zucker's Bagels & Smoked Fish to the neighborhood, where they will soon open their largest location to date (via Forward).

• Businesses in the district celebrated big milestones this month. Fujifilm's experiential brick and mortar store, The Wonder Photo Shop, commemorated serving over 80,000 guests (via Digital Trends) in its first year and WeWork was selected as one of the top five co-working spaces in the world (via Wall Street Journal). Cheddar expanded its business news broadcasting to live segments from the Hamptons every Friday this summer (via Guest of a Guest), and opened a West Coast studio in Los Angeles (via Hollywood Reporter). Finally, Flywheel Sports! announced a partnership with Truly, a spiked sparkling water, with four weeks of 'Cycle and Sip' summer classes (via PR Newswire). 

• The digital media outlet, Quartz, has a newly redesigned office space by Desai Chia Architecture at its Manhattan headquarters located within the district (via DeZeen). The Skimm recently gave a grand tour of their headquarters, also located in the district, as they celebrated their fifth anniversary (via Business Insider).

• Local events were a hit in July. The Museum of Broken Relationships pop-up located in the Flatiron North Public Plaza garnered massive buzz for Bravo TV's new show A Night With My Ex (via Time Out). Madison Square Park launched their Summer Concert Series this month providing free outdoor concerts each Wednesday through August 16 (via Murph Guide). 

Image of Cosme via A Life Worth Eating 

Flatiron BID Issues RFP for Holiday Event Management Team

The Flatiron/23^rd Street Partnership Business Improvement District seeks proposals from qualified firms through this request for proposals (RFP) to develop and manage events and programming related to a large scale holiday season installation on the North Flatiron Public Plaza during the 2017 holiday season.

Click here to download the RFP.

NYC Restaurant Week Returns with 18 Participating Flatiron District Restaurants

Reservations are now open for the summer edition of NYC Restaurant Week, taking place from July 24 to August 18. This is the 25th anniversary of NYC Restaurant Week, which is a semiannual promotion by NYC & Company, the official destination marketing organization for the five boroughs of New York City.

Participating restaurants are offering three-course lunches for $29 and dinners for $42, not including beverages or gratuity. For a full list of participating restaurants and information on reservations, click here. Reservations are highly recommended, and can be made on OpenTable - an official sponsor of NYC Restaurant Week.

See below for a list of participating Flatiron District restaurants: 

New Neighbor: KOHLER Experience Center

The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership is thrilled to welcome KOHLER's new retail concept to the Flatiron District. The first KOHLER Experience Center in the world is now open at 6 West 22nd Street. The Center houses fully-functioning displays of Kohler’s global product line available across the world—a first for both the industry and for the KOHLER brand. This will enable trade professionals and consumers to test and source KOHLER products like never before. Fully-functioning products, including showers, tubs, sinks, and toilets will enable all customers to experience the true differences in performance and design.

"We chose Flatiron because of its growing reputation as the new design district," says Kymberly Weiner, New York City sales and development manager, "We didn’t want to be anywhere else! We actually looked for the perfect Flatiron property for over two years before finding this one."

At the New York City flagship located in Manhattan’s iconic Flatiron District, each touchpoint of the 10,000 square-foot space is designed to connect and inspire. The Experience Center within the KEC is the only private bathing space in New York City where guests can exclusively experience Kohler’s most impressive offering of products like Real Rain, the DTV+ digital showering system, VibrAcoustic hydrotherapy, and a range of showerheads and intelligent toilets among the very latest in KOHLER technology.

To best serve design professionals, KEC will also offer a new KOHLER global specification service, which will for the first time allow professional architects and designers working on international projects to have instant, hands-on access to all products across the entire KOHLER global portfolio. A Kohler team of experts will be stationed on-site to help source and resolve complex plumbing projects both in the United States and around the world. By appointment video conferencing will also be available, connecting customers with the full network of KOHLER product experts across its international markets.

“We recognized a tremendous need across the industry for a deeper knowledge and insight into how our products work,” says Larry Yuen, Kohler Co. president of the global Kitchen & Bath Group. “From a plumbing perspective, the products that work in a bathroom in Milan are acutely different from those that need to work in a hotel in Dubai, for instance. Our goal with the KEC is to provide design professionals with both the ability to source and resolve all plumbing needs on a global scale from any KEC location.”

Each KEC will also serve as an art exhibit space for select pieces from the permanent collection of Kohler Co. and its renowned Arts/Industry program through the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, which fosters the intersection of art and the industrial process. Since its founding in 1974, the program has hosted more than 500 resident artists from around the world at the manufacturer’s global headquarters in Kohler, Wis., where in its pottery and foundry, they are immersed in a new creative medium.

Kohler Co. plans to launch a total of nine KECs over the next year to meet the global demand. In addition to the New York opening, London will immediately follow, along with Los Angeles, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bangkok, New Delhi and Taipei opening later in the year.

KEC NYC will be open seven days a week, welcoming walk-ins from both consumers and trade professionals. It will be run and operated in partnership with Best Plumbing Supply, a leading KOHLER plumbing distributor in the Northeast. 

The store is open from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. 

KOHLER Experience Center, 6 West 22nd Street, (855) 466-7031

New Neighbor: The White Company

The Flatiron District has the honor of welcoming UK lifestyle brand The White Company to not only the neighborhood but to New York and The United States. The international flagship sits at 155 Fifth Avenue and stocks a curated selection of lifestyle, homeware and clothing products across 3,000 square feet.

Founded by Chrissie Rucker MBE over 22 years ago, The White Company has become one of the UK’s fastest growing multi-channel retailers and a leading lifestyle brand with more than 50 stores across the UK. The quintessentially British brand is now synonymous with transforming houses into homes, creating impeccably stylish, beautifully designed products with British town and country heritage at its core. What started as a range of white essentials for the linen cupboard has gradually grown into the ultimate luxury lifestyle destination for the home, closet, and children.

Today, the collection encompasses home accessories, such as candles, tableware and vases; beauty, including a recently launched skincare collection; fragrance and bath & body – all alongside an impressive clothing range that includes the softest cashmere sweaters, luxurious loungewear and stylish dresses and accessories – which will all be available in the new flagship. A selection of The Little White Company products, featuring beautiful-quality, affordable baby clothes, and nursery essentials, will also be housed in the new store.

“We are thrilled to be bringing our collections to the USA with our very own store in New York," said Rucker. "For us, white is the blank canvas for stylish living that is effortless and timeless. We’re obsessed with our products and the stories behind them – carefully curating beautiful, useful pieces for you, your home and your family. Quiet luxury for every day: we strive to create collections that make the most of life’s simple pleasures. I cannot emphasize enough how much love, care, and attention goes into every item we make at The White Company, and I absolutely cannot wait to share this across the USA, beginning our story in New York.”

The store is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. 

The White Company, 155 Fifth Avenue, (646) 741-8777