June News Roundup

June’s news media updates revolve around outdoor dining, adapting to reopenings, and the continuing effects of the pandemic on local restaurants, businesses, and real estate. Stay up-to-date with the latest Flatiron District News.

Restaurants & Bars

• Outdoor dining pushed New York City restaurants like Cote to rethink their menus. The Michelin-starred Korean-style steakhouse’s regular beef-dominated bill of fare now has been supplemented with a classic, picnic-minded favorite: fried chicken (via The Wall Street Journal).
• Chef Dan Jackson, culinary director of Fields Good Chicken, recalls the high-paced atmosphere of the Eleven Madison Park kitchen after it topped San Pelligrino’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2017 (via Inside Hook).
•     Eataly‘s Flatiron location — the global Italian food hall for meats, cheeses, and fluffy focaccia — is the perfect place to get a restaurant-made picnic spread in New York City (via Eater).
•     A new rooftop bar and lounge at 234 Fifth Avenue may soon take shape in NoMad pending approvals from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (via New York YIMBY).
• Blackbarn and La Pecora Bianca are highlighted as two New York City restaurants open for outdoor dining (via TechGeeked).

BID Businesses

• Raul Àvila an event planner with a retail store on West 22nd Street was “very, very happy. After three months of being home, I could not wait to get back to work,” when interviewed about Phase 1 reopening (via CBS New York).
• In February, right before New York was put on lockdown, menswear designer Todd Snyder held a made-to-measure suit fitting at his stores on Madison Square Park and West Broadway (via Business of Fashion).

Real Estate & Commercial

• Madison House, NoMad’s tallest residential skyscraper of 805 feet at 126 Madison Avenue, is undergoing final touches (via New York YIMBY).
• Four condo units at Madison House, an unfinished luxury development in the city’s NoMad neighborhood, went into contract in the past month at market prices collectively worth at least $6 million (via Crain’s New York).
• Hair Lounge hair salon signed a ten-year retail lease for 1,314 square feet of space on the second floor of 668 Sixth Avenue (via Globe St). 
• The 479-foot-tall residential tower at 30 East 31st Street nears completion. Designed by Morris Adjmi Architects, the high-rise mixes Neo-Gothic and Art Deco styles present in the historic NoMad neighborhood to create one of the most distinctive new buildings in the city (via 6sqft).
• Allen Gross’ GFI Capital has upped its stake in the 337-key James Hotel and now controls around 80 percent of the hotel at 22 East 29th Street (via The Real Deal).
• Heitler Houstoun Architects’ proposal to replace aging facade at 1177 Broadway is now under review by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (via New York YIMBY)
• Buyers are turning to virtual tours to safely view properties from home. At 21 East 22nd Street, Douglas Elliman agent Frances Katzen hosted a tour over Zoom for buyers (via U.S. News & World Report).
• According to rental site Zumper, median rents for a one-bedroom in the Flatiron District are hovering around $4,100, compared to a $3,235 one-bedroom median for New York as a whole (via Hoodline).

In the Neighborhood

•  Area Business Improvement Districts rise to challenge COVID-19 realities and recount how COVID-19 and cases of looting have impacted their usual public programming, and how they’re maintaining the areas that have been hit particularly hard (via Chelsea Community News).

Photo Credit: Inside Hook