Singer signs Joffrey Ballet as East Village dorm tenant

Developer Gregg Singer’s controversial student housing development at 605 East 9th Street will now house students from the West Village’s Joffrey Ballet School, the Wall Street Journal reported. Located on the corner of Avenue B in the East Village, the dance school will rent roughly 120 beds on the building’s first and second floors.

Each bed will command between $1,550 and $1,650 in monthly rent, Singer told the Journal.

Singer’s development, which he is leading along with an investment group, has sparked anger among community residents. East Villagers in February renewed their efforts to have the old school be converted instead into low-income housing or a community center.

More recently, City Council member Rosie Mendez raised concerns about proposed modifications to the building’s exterior.

The project is dubbed University House and is slated to open in fall 2014.

“The dormitories are important for us because they create a safe, comfortable environment,” Lee Merwin, Joffrey’s director of operations, told the Journal. [WSJ, 1st item] —Zachary Kussin