CHELSEA — A longtime Italian restaurant and a decades-old custom car shop are moving from their 10th Avenue building after being told its new owner plans to demolish it, reps for the two businesses said.
Pepe Giallo at 253 10th Ave., at the corner of West 25th Street, plans to leave by end of the year, restaurant owner Gaspare Villa said.
The 18-year-old eatery plans to move into a space at 195 10th Ave., between West 21st and West 22nd streets, which was formerly occupied by Printed Matter bookstore. The bookstore relocated to 11th Avenue last year.
“The building was sold, so we’re trying to move,” Villa told Community Board 4’s business license and permits committee Monday. “By the end of the year, the building is coming down.”
Meanwhile, Auto Designs NYC at 255 10th Ave., which shares a building with Pepe Giallo, is still searching for a new site in Manhattan, a sales manager said.
“[The building’s owner] is knocking it down and putting up apartments,” said the manager, Nick, who declined to give his last name. “That’s pretty much what’s happening all over.” The shop celebrated its 22nd anniversary four days ago, he added.
A city Department of Buildings spokesman on Tuesday said the agency has not yet received demolition applications for either address.
DOB inspectors investigated the 253 W. 10th Ave. in December 2013 after receiving a complaint that an apartment in the building was being run as an illegal hotel, the spokesman said.
The building’s owners resolved the illegal hotel violation but still haven’t addressed other violations, including lack of egress, fire alarms and automatic sprinklers, he added.
Con Edison turned off the residential portion of the building’s public light and power on May 27 after it failed to receive an application for service, a notice posted on 253 10th Ave.’s residential doorway showed.
Attempts to reach the building’s owner on Tuesday were unsuccessful.
