Whole Upper East Side Corner To Be Demolished, Across From Extell Site

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An entire Yorkville corner is about to face the wrecking ball, as the building's owners head to court in an effort to drive out the block's remaining businesses, court records and planning documents show.

Developers filed plans Thursday to demolish the whole northwest corner of East 86th Street and First Avenue, where a set of connected four-story buildings have stood since 1910. The ground floor includes long-running businesses like Aero Locksmith, Hybrid Florist, A & N Art Gallery, Taco Today, and a number of other shops and restaurants.

"It's heartbreaking," said Mike Gaizo, owner of Aero Locksmith, who alerted the neighborhood to the teardowns when he posted a sign in the shop window last month, announcing that his business would move within weeks.

"I want to be ahead of the curve because I don’t want to cry when they take the building down," he told Patch.

The building's owners have not been identified. Records show the corner was purchased for $14.5 million in 2020 by a group listed under an anonymous limited partnership — the same entity that filed this week's demolition plans.

But Gaizo said he was told by the building's management company that the new owner is Extell: the same developer that has torn down nearly every building on the opposite corner across 86th Street, where a single holdout tenant has stymied the company's plans for a high-rise tower.

Extell did not immediately respond to questions about whether it owns the northwest corner, whose addresses span from 349-361 East 86th St. and 1653-1659 First Ave.

"Who reads the whole thing?"

The corner building had a combined 33 apartments, but Gaizo said all residential tenants have left ahead of the demolition.

Meanwhile, the anonymous developers have been in court since last year trying to drive out the remaining commercial tenants, filing at least eight lawsuits against the various businesses alleging unpaid rent.

The landlords have already won two cases, against the owners of the restaurant Chicky's 86 and a deli two doors down, records show. They still have cases pending against the block's Dunkin' Donuts and Hybrid Florist, against whom the owners filed an eviction proceeding last week.

Gaizo said the teardowns were set in motion roughly three years ago, when the previous landlord added a clause to his lease renewal requiring tenants to leave within 90 days if demolition plans were filed. But he paid it little notice at the time.

"They send you a lease, it's 28 pages long — who reads the whole thing?" he said.

By September, Aero received a letter requiring them to leave by the end of the year, he said. It will mark the end of an era for Gaizo, who began working for the locksmith as a teenager in 1979, taking over the store years later. (Its new location will be at 221 East 83rd St., between Second and Third avenues.)

Once the demolition is complete, it will mark the latest dramatic change to the Upper East Side's streetscape, which has been transformed in recent years by high-rise development. Extell has helped lead that charge, building other new towers on First Avenue and Park Avenue, and planning teardowns on multiple sites along East 86th Street — including the home of Papaya King.

Some have welcomed the projects, given the city's desperate housing shortage. But critics have noted that some new developments contain fewer housing units than the low-rise tenements they replaced, while others simply decry the changing aesthetics of the neighborhood.

"It's sad," Gaizo said. "What they did to our poor Upper East Side."

Related coverage:

• Lone Upper East Side Tenant Defeated By Extell In Quest For New Tower
• New UES Tower Will Build Around Holdout Residents, Plans Show
• Major Upper East Side Corner Faces Demolition, Including Papaya King
  
• 500-Foot Tower Coming To Upper East Side Corner, Plans Show

Have an Upper East Side news tip? Contact reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com.