Luxury Apartments Replace Dive Bar in NYC’s Trendy East Village
Residential leasing has begun at Jupiter 21, a newly constructed 78,000-square-foot apartment property at 21 East 1st St. in Manhattan.
By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor
New York—Residential leasing has begun at Jupiter 21, a newly constructed 78,000-square-foot apartment property at 21 East 1st St. in Manhattan. The 65-unit, 12-story building, developed by BFC Partners and designed by GF 55, features 52 market-rate rental residences and 13 condos.
The units of Jupiter 21 are comprised of studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments, each with hardwood flooring, stainless steel European appliances and oversized windows, with rents at the market-rate apartments (starting) from about $3,450 to $5,575 a month. Many of the units also have terraces or balconies offering views of the city, and the building also includes a full-service concierge and full-time super.
Though the property is a new-development apartment building aiming to attract well-heeled professionals (which it is, according to developer BFC Partners), the site has a storied past removed from affluence. The location is best known—at least among New Yorkers—as the site of the Mars Bar, a dive “known for its grungy, post-punk ethos,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
The East Village site also included two small residential buildings on Second Ave. that had previously been owned by the city, and turned over to experimental theater maven Ellen Stewart in the 1970s on the condition that she rent the apartments to artists at low rates. After a protracted process in recent years, nine residents of older buildings agreed to relinquish their space in return for affordable condos (technically cooperative housing) in Jupiter 21, for which they will pay $10.
In addition to its residential units, the mixed-use property includes about 10,800 square feet of retail space along Second Ave. Tenants will include TD Bank and a yet-to-be decided lounge/bar venue, though it’s unlikely it will be anything like the Mars Bar. The property’s name, however, is an homage to the joint, which was at the location from the mid-80s until the New York Department of Health closed it down in the summer of 2011. Jupiter follows Mars.
