Demolition is underway on the Chinatown buildings destroyed in last week’s devastating seven-alarm fire on Grand Street near Eldridge Street, according to Bowery Boogie, while displaced residents try to adjust to their new, temporary homes in Harlem and outside LaGuardia Airport. Although residents had been staying in the Skyline Hotel at 725 10th Avenue on the corner of 49th Street, the approximately 200 people who are in need of temporary shelter were moved on Saturday. The residents, many of whom worked or attended school in their Chinatown neighborhood, are distressed over the move, citing a potential loss of livelihood. [Bowery Boogie] and [NYDN]

From left: Adam Lynch, a firefighter with the FDNY’s Ladder 11, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and the Chinatown fire

Just days after a seven-alarm fire ravaged a cluster of Chinatown buildings on Grand Street near Eldridge Street, killing one person, injuring dozens and rendering hundreds homeless, the transportation and public safety committee of Manhattan’s Community Board 3 met last night to discuss, among other things, a resolution denouncing the possible closure of fire stations in its neighborhood. The potential closures would come as part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed 4 percent budget cut for fiscal year 2011. Adam Lynch, a firefighter with the Fire Department of New York’s Ladder 11 at 222 East 2nd Street, said that response time has been a key determining factor in many stations’ fate in the past, which he feels is unfair. [more]

Interior shots of the Charles Gwathmey-designed 240 Centre Street, Apt. 5H

The only apartment designed from the ground up by recently deceased architect Charles Gwathmey is now on the market for $19.95 million. The Corcoran Group’s Sharon Baum and David Enloe have the listing for the 6,600-square-foot co-op at 240 Centre Street, Apt. 5H. The four-bedroom apartment took Gwathmey four years to complete, according to the listing. Baum and Enloe were not immediately available for comment. The apartment, in the landmarked Police Building at Centre and Grand streets in Soho, was on the market for $26 million with Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Michael Kotler until August 16, according to Streeteasy.com. Kotler was not immediately available for comment. TRD [more]

Choreographer Paul Taylor is selling his Vandam Street townhouse to
move closer to his company’s new rehearsal studio, which is relocating
to the East River Houses, a Lower East Side co-op. Taylor is moving to
a co-op on Grand Street, the New York Times reported. He is asking
$4.75 million for his two-bedroom Vandam Street home, which dates from
the 1820s, and the proceeds of the sale will go to the dance company.
Taylor purchased the house in 1970 for $140,000. Prudential Douglas
Elliman’s Leslie Mason has the townhouse listing. Comments

The developer of a Soho office building is no longer requesting a
zoning variance to build an 11-story structure at 330 West
Broadway at Grand Street. The planned structure, which was criticized
by Community Board 2 and the
Soho Alliance, would have been a 55 percent increase in bulk over what
is permitted by the current zoning. The property’s owner, John De
Lorenzo and Bro Iron, is currently engaged in litigation with the
developer, West Broadway 330 LLC, for allegedly failing to provide
payments after agreeing to put down a $500,000 deposit. The developer
has filed a counterclaim, charging that De Lorenzo violated the deal’s
confidentiality agreement after news of the deal’s collapse became
public. [more]