The pizza oven has been installed, the bar has been constructed, the brick walls fully exposed, and the upper two stories gutted of floors and stripped to the beams to reveal striking 30′ plus ceilings. Though there’s still a lot of work to be done, Levante at 26-21 Jackson Avenue hopes to open sometime in April. We met with one of the partners, Tony D’Aiuto, and toured the bustling construction site this morning.
The first thing to note is that despite the prominently displayed pizza oven, they also have a huge kitchen area in the back, which in addition to making Levante’s chef ecstatic about the roominess, also means Levante will have a full Italian menu. Another unusual feature, is the large backyard pictured above, which is charmingly enclosed by old brick walled buildings, and framed in the background by the emerging Court Square skyline.
Finally, there are those super-high ceilings. For the sake of ambience, the restaurant’s landlord Rockrose opted to forgo leasing out the upstairs1 and offered the gutted spot to the tenant of their choosing – not solely based on the highest bidder. Tony mentioned that Rockrose was definitely looking to curate the location, and visited his East Village restaurant ‘Luzzo’s’ before proffering him a lease. Just thinking about that visit makes me hungry and longing for April. In the meantime if you want to check out those ceilings, pop into the newly opened Toby’s Estate Coffee next door to Levante to get a taste. Abbondanza!
A Tower Rises in Queens – 1QPS to be exact, and it’s now leasing. It’s 44 stories w/ 390 units 80% of which are studios and 1-br’s, and it’s located just east of Silvercup Studios and easily viewed from the entrance and exit ramps of the Queensboro Bridge. Oh, and it’s got a 42′ climbing wall and an outdoor pool!
1QPS – check out the pool!
Construction Update: Tishman Speyer’s Trio of Massive Rental Towers – at the top of Jackson Ave and almost topped out = lotsa pizza eaters coming soon
29-26 Northern Blvd Nears 20 Floors – just north of the towers above
7-Story Resi Building Stalls Before Completion in Dutch Kills – why, who knows?
LIC Rezoning Proposal Imminent, Dividing Community – wait, there’s going to be more massive towers in the offing?
Two NYC Men Sentenced in Kidnapping, Torture of a Man in LIC Warehouse – 13 yrs each gives them lots of time to think about what they did
Betting On de Blasio’s $2.5 Billion Streetcar Paying For Itself Is ‘A Recipe For Disaster’ – and a quintuple disaster if it ends up costing $12.5 billion as we project
Katz Delivers 2017 State of Borough Address – pushing for an arena and soccer stadium in Willets Point
- they were able to transfer the air rights to their adjacent tower [↩]
[…] LEVANTE ON JACKSON AVE IS GETTING CLOSER AND TOBY’S ARRIVES ↩ […]