Allen St gets some NY Times lovin'

NY Times on Allen St, the redheaded stepchild of 1st Avenue:

Lately, however, Allen has been showing signs of life. In a few months, a one-block stretch of the mall will be cleaned, redesigned and replanted, the first step in what might be a larger rehabilitation project.

Developers are carving up a longtime foam-rubber warehouse on the east side of Allen between Houston and Stanton and converting it into 10 retail spaces. Already, boutiques selling bikinis and cosmetics are filling triangular spaces - the remnants of the buildings cut into odd shapes when the city widened the street - shoehorned between tiny restaurants.

Along Allen, new tenants include Lucky Jack's (which is a nice little place, not snobby or overpriced - ed.), an upscale bar (and eventually, restaurant) that opened five weeks ago on the block between Rivington and Delancey Streets, inside a former linens store, with entrances on both Allen and Orchard.

Other newcomers include Lali Boutique at 196 Allen, an August arrival that sells crocheted bathing suits, and Moo Shoes, which moved to 152 Allen a year ago and sells 'alternatives to leather.'

Jumping over from Orchard Street for a third of the rent and greater visibility, according to its owner, is Make Up Mania, which offers classes to would-be makeup artists who want to learn, say, how to create the illusion of bleeding bullet holes on skin

The article also talks about the the bike lanes added this year, which I appreciate quite a bit and rehabilitating the mall in the median, which are severely underused.

Though I'm not liking the high rise condo at 115 Allen or the possible new hotel at the corner of Houston.

...the proposed new hotel, still unnamed, which will tower over the street and certainly raise objections from those who frequently oppose out-of-scale projects.

Yet these objections may be falling on deaf ears, as more residential buildings of this size crop up across the neighborhood, like the Avalon Chrystie Place a few blocks over on Houston Street, and a project once called the Surface Hotel that hovers over Rivington Street.

The new hotel will have several dozen overnight hotel suites as well as condo-hotel units and luxury condo apartments; the precise numbers of each are still being worked out, according to the developer. The hotel is also supposed to have bars, restaurants and an outdoor pool and will have two entrances, one on Orchard Street and the other on Allen...

Ugh.