Half Of Upper East Side Block To Be Demolished, Plans Show

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A large chunk of a Second Avenue block will soon be cleared by a developer, likely to make way for a high-rise project, city records show.

The five-story building at 1357-1363 Second Ave. has stood for a century on the southwest corner of East 72nd Street. Until recently, it was home to 28 apartments and a row of shops including Sharkey's Cuts for Kids, Z'baby, InVite Health and Kolb Art Gallery — though the businesses closed as the new development loomed.

The Chetrit Group, a real estate development company, paid $47.2 million in 2018 to acquire the building from its previous owner SL Green, records show. Then, on Thursday, Chetrit filed plans with the city to knock down the entire building, which spans halfway down the block toward East 71st Street.

The new demolitions come two years after Chetrit tore down the adjacent church building at 252 East 72nd St., which will also likely become part of the development site. The Church of St. John the Martyr building had been built in 1887 as a Presbyterian church, before eventually closing in 2015.

Chetrit's plans for the site are unclear, and no plans for new construction have been filed. In 2020, City Realty revealed renderings showing a medical tower operated by Weill Cornell Medicine on the site, but no such building has been announced. (Weill Cornell, meanwhile, is planning a 16-story dormitory building for medical students on York Avenue.)

Patch reached out to the Chetrit Group requesting details on the new development, and will update this story with any information.

Second Avenue has seen a flurry of developments in recent months, including a 21-story tower set to be built a block south near East 71st Street; a 22-story tower planned on East 88th Street; another 22-story building on East 83rd Street, and a planned demolition near East 60th Street.