Daily Archives: February 15, 2016

Stuyvesant Post Office: Progress being made

Rendering of residential building to be built at 432 East 14th Street

Rendering of residential building to be built at 432 East 14th Street

By Sabina Mollot

Construction will soon start on the eight-story, 114-apartment building that’s planned for the space that once housed the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office.

Additionally, according to the developer, Benenson Capital Partners, construction will end in late 2016 or early 2017 and the building will be 80/20 (market rent vs. affordable housing, respectively). The information was recently published on the owner’s website, which EVGrieve first reported.

The local blog also published a rendering for the project, the first one to be seen publically, which depicts the East 13th Street side of the property, with the ground floor façade covered, trellis-like, in what appear to be plantings.

In related news, on December 18, 2015, the Department of Buildings approved an application for a sub-division of the property’s existing tax lots to three new condominium subdivisions. One was for a commercial unit, the other two residential.

What this means, a spokesperson for the DOB explained, is that the lot is broken into three properties, which is done for certain tax purposes within the Department of Finance. The spokesperson said he couldn’t say whether this meant there would be condos in the traditional sense (owned units as opposed to rental).

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ST actor to star in autobiographical play about LGBT college rugby team

Una Aya Osato as one of the characters in “With You” (Photo by Anna Barsan)

Una Aya Osato will play every member of a college rugby team in “With You.” a new comedic play she also wrote for the upcoming FRIGID Festival. (Photo by Anna Barsan)

By Sabina Mollot

As she has for the past six years, Una Aya Osato, a Stuyvesant Town resident who’s an actor, writer, theater producer and burlesque dancer, is giving New Yorkers a reason to leave their apartments this snow-filled month.

She’ll be participating in the FRIGID Festival, an annual smorgasbord of alternative theater that’s now celebrating its 10th anniversary.

This year’s event will include 30 productions at two East Village venues, one of which is “With You,” a one-woman show written and performed by Osato.

This play, which Osato has described as a “queer rom-com,” focuses on a college rugby team with women and trans-people as members, and it’s actually semi-autobiographical. Osato had attended Wesleyan University, which she said was a pretty progressive place. “Especially in the rugby community,” which was full of artists and LGBT students. That would include Osato, although she prefers the term “queer” over gay.

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