About that vacant, sometimes lush lot on 29th Street & 10th Avenue

It is not too far from the truth to say that this block association was formed around the wild little empty jungle we have on 29th Street & 10th Avenue. I won’t scroll all the way back to our 5-year old posts, but suffice to say that we made a rendering of a what a community garden in the lot—designated by the city as Block 700, Lot 36—would look like and even drew up a proposal for changing its tax classification. The dream never actualized unfortunately and so the lot remains what you see here today.

We wrote last week about the vacant storefront on 29th & 10th, right next to this empty lot, and observed that the vacant-next-to-vacant situation is causing a situation‍ that we don’t need to put into a thousand words. This empty lot remains owned by the same owner we spoke to 5 years ago, and the total value of the land has stayed virtually the same over that period (around $3.8m). “Improvement value,” which is the city’s way of valuing what you’ve actually put on the land (like a house or apartment building), sits at a clean $0. This is our neighborhood dinosaur; a glimpse of the prehistoric era of West Chelsea that existed before the glassy building you’re probably reading this from sprung up.

We’re going to reach out to the owner again to see if there are any plans for the space, which is currently burning through about $190k/year in taxes ‍and not generating any income (unless there are crops in there or something). Will let you know what we hear back. ‍

New bagel place called Pio opening on 23rd Street & 10th Avenue

A new bagel place called Pio is about to open on 23rd Street & 10th Avenue (northwest corner)—thanks to neighbor Eric Marcus for pointing this out to us. Our investigative team went up and visited another Pio location on 39th & 9th, which is the picture to the right you see here. You can see the Yelp reviews for the Hell’s Kitchen location here (the reviews are very good); their menu here; and their Instagram here. Upshot is this is a classic New York-style bagel place with some Latin flair. It specializes in the cream cheese blends (or “schmears,” which candidly is a word I’m not yet entirely comfortable with), egg sandwiches, smoothies, and pastries.

Can’t beat a New York bagel or breakfast, and so happy to have this right near our block.

Annual London Terrace street fair on Saturday, October 3rd

London Terrace is the massive brick apartment complex that covers an entire block, from 23rd to 24th Street between 9th & 10th Avenues. We have repeatedly referenced the president of the London Terrace tenants’ association, Inge Ivchenko, as an individual with impeccable taste‍. Inge writes in with a reminder that on Saturday October 3rd, we should all wander down to 24th Street between 9th & 10th Avenues for the annual London Terrace Street Fair. Here’s the description:

Saturday, October 3 from 10:AM to 5:PM

It’s almost October 3, and The London Terrace Street Fair will be here!  Word has spread once again.

Free Balloon artist from NOON to 2PM.

Still the best street fair/vintage market in NYC!  Shoppers, come stroll along their beautiful tree lined street for the best annual event in Chelsea!

There will be vendors, familiar faces, neighbors, elected, and visitors from afar!  Celebrate this annual unofficial start of Autumn, and pick up some holiday gifts while you’re at it!  

We’ll see you there, Inge, and thanks for all the work that we know goes into this!

ZZ’s Club in Hudson Yards is available to you for a small $20k initiation fee (and $10k/year)

Some days I think we really need to raise the dues of this block association, which currently sit at $0/year. At ZZ’s Club, a private members-only club at 35 Hudson Yards (same building as Equinox and Kendall Roy’s swanky apartment), for an easy $20k initiation fee and then just $10k/year, you get the privilege of being able to tell other people that you belong to ZZ’s Club AND book a reservation at two restaurants (called ZZ’s and Carbone) that the rest of us can’t find on OpenTable.

Exclusivity is the point here, and so even your paper won’t get you in; you have to know a guy, and that guy had to know a guy, and probably so forth. Here’s a handy article called Can You Actually Get Into ZZ's Club New York? which explains the application process yet which we at H28’s Club will summarize for you: No. Now that’ll be 20 thousand dollars.

Wolf Building on 26th Street & 10th Ave remains for sale (for $170m)

The Wolf Building, on the southwest corner of 26th Street and 10th Avenue, was put up for sale in December 2024 for $170 million, and as far as we can tell, remains up for sale today. There is some serious history to this building, which like the rest of West Chelsea, is a haven for art galleries. Per our sister publication The New York Times, the building was constructed in the early 1900s and originally used for printing and binding books; in the 1970s, it was purchased by a Holocaust survivor (named Raymond Naftali) who turned it into a garment warehouse; and in the 1990s, Raymond’s wife Gloria turned the space into a collection of art studios. Here’s an incredibly charming passage about Gloria Naftali from the NYT article:

After Mr. Naftali’s death [in 2003], his wife continued fussing lovingly over her creative brood, dancing at parties into her nineties and making pledges that the building would remain an artists’ community forever, tenants said.

Gloria died in 2022, and representatives of her estate made the controversial decision to sell the building in 2024, saying that the building was “just not profitable enough.” All right. Here at High Line 28, we have to respect the decision of property owners to sell when they want to sell, though we’re also of the view that the artists and the studios and the exhibitions are what make Chelsea Chelsea. We’ll reach out to the estate representatives here to find out what the latest is on the sale process.

New Irish Tavern opening right near you on 9th Avenue

We’re getting a new Irish tavern on 24th Street & 9th Avenue (name of the place TBD). The owner’s name is Nicholas Brennan and he owns two other Irish-style taverns in NYC, called Sutton Bar Room ‍on 1st Ave and 58th Street and The Canary in Crown Heights. You can see the menu in here (scroll to page 18)—you’ve got your traditional bangers and mash, truffle buratta cheesesteak, smashburger, mini sausage rolls, and even your “Irish Toastie,” which is a lot of Irish: “Irish ham, Irish cheddar, and Kerry Gold Irish butter on Brennans bread served with a cup of tomato soup or Tayto crisps.” Deas!‍ ‍

The space formerly held The Chelsea House, a seafood restaurant which closed years ago. We think this area of 9th Avenue needs to animate a bit, particularly at night, and so we’re really happy to have this open up. We’ll reach out to the owner to see if we can get more information on the opening. ‍

Don’t be depresso; drink Madman Espresso

For those who live on the upper west side of Chelsea, written into every new lease agreement is a requirement that those who live closer to 10th Avenue go to Hudson Market for coffee; those closer to 11th go to Madman Espresso on 29th & 11th Avenue. This is a post encouraging those on the east side to wander over to Madman Espresso, which opened in January 2026, for your next coffee trip.

The baseline vibe and decor here can be described as elevated loft industrial, which fits in with the West Chelsea neighborhood and so which naturally we’re here for. From there the design goes vaguely bonkers (you might even say madness), but it works? It has stadium-style seating directed at the counter, allowing you to walk up to the upper “deck” (there are three decks), take a seat, and overlook the baristas making your cappuccino or avocado toast. Then there is the ordering window (look to the right of the picture on the left above) where residents of 3Eleven—the apartment building above this place—can basically just go to their lobby and pick up coffee drive-through (walk-through) style without ever going outside.

Other flourishes are the old-school miniature taxi-cab near the front door; the brass-and-stone-looking wall menu; and the ‘so bad it’s good’ motto of the place, which is “Don’t be depresso, drink Madman Espresso.” Incredible—and if you follow the style of this association, relatable.

Thanks Marco, the owner profiled a few years ago in the NYT‍, for opening this on our block.

Ever-changing street art on 22nd Street between 10th & 11th Aves

Jason, your neighbor on the lower west side of Chelsea, writes in with a suggestion that we visit the Comme des Garçons storefront on 22nd Street between 10th & 11th Avenues to see the constantly changing graffiti. We took the suggestion and performed a longitudinal study this last week, meaning we visited on a Sunday and a Friday, and over that very short period of time, watched the art change over from the racoon you see here to the comic book-style couple saying nothing to each other that you also see here.

We’re very into the evolving and beautiful, city, gritty nature that this whole things brings to the neighborhood and have added it to our regular walk; thanks Jason. A‍ bit more detail for you on the store and the front: Comme des Garçons (which means “like boys” in French) is a streetwear Japanese fashion house that is cooler than you; you can see some silhouettes here. The storefront has been a canvas for graffiti artists dating back to at least 2008; you can see others posting about it over the years here and here‍. This does not appear to be one person’s doing; it’s a true street art collective making the brick storefront their canvas. Let us know if you have more info on who’s behind it; we’ll try to catch them in the act over the next few months.

Let’s talk about the vacancies, starting with the storefront on 10th Ave & 29th Street

This is the first in a series of posts that are coming about the vacant lots and storefronts around our block. On the latter, our Chelsea neighborhood is (along with Hell’s Kitchen) sitting right around the city’s overall vacant storefront rate of about 11% (we’re at about 12%). So the good news is we’re average. The bad news is we’re average.

The vacant space on 29th Street near 10th Avenue that you see here is right next to an empty mini-jungle that OGs of this block association will recall we mused about turning into a community garden about 5 years ago now—and yes, another post is coming about that green vacant lot. This particular vacant storefront is owned by Maestro West Chelsea Spe LLC, which is the owner of the entire glassy residential building that 28th Streeters will know as 507 West Chelsea. In city parlance, the building is on Block 700, Lot 27 and valued for tax purposes at $107 million (which frankly is way too low, but we’ve already established that the city’s property appraisal system makes no sense). There are 372 residential units and exactly 1 commercial unit in the building, and the commercial storefront space you see here has a technical address of 506 West 29th Street.

By all accounts of the many members of this organization who live in 507 West Chelsea, Maestro is doing an incredible job on 28th Street; if you walk into the 507 West Chelsea lobby on 28th, you kind of feel like you’re walking into a wellness spa replete with a full green wall right behind the lobby. But as much as we love a little grit around here, the equivalent space on 29th Street has a bit of a Fight Club feel, by which I mean kind of just like a dingy basement and without any Brad Pitt or even any Edward Norton. And where we really draw the line is no Edward Norton. I’ve been on the block for quite some time, and as far as I know, no tenant has ever been in this space. The double-vacancy situation pictured here is causing a problem that I don’t need to put into a thousand words.

So what can we do about this? We’ll reach out to Maestro and Newmark, the commercial broker for the space, to see what’s going on here, but the fact is they probably want a tenant even more than you or I want a tenant. If you’ve got any ideas (and we have at least one), please let us know.

In the meantime, please remember to get gelato at our new gelato place; get zebras at our new zebra place; and otherwise get what you need as close to you as possible.‍ Sometimes you launch a prayer into the universe and it is kind of answered; most times it is on us though to make the house a home and make a block a neighborhood. We’ll let you know if there are any updates.

New Netflix series called Myron Bolitar filming on 28th Street next week

A new Netflix series based on a book series called Myron Bolitar is shooting on 28th Street between 10th & 11th this Tuesday, September 28, 2026. The book series appears to have a serious following; it is about a basketball star who gets injured and turns into a sports agent and who ALSO has the time to solve dark mysteries for his clients. This is a protagonist both cunning and skilled at time management. Here’s a little teaser video though there isn’t an official Netflix trailer yet. We’ll see if we can stop by to see some of the action.

Chelsea Garden Club is ALSO helping transform our block tree pits

We wrote last week about the tree pits on 10th Avenue around 27th & 28th Streets that, we had understood, were being transformed by the The Horticultural Society of New York, a nonprofit engaged by the city council. It turns out that that was only partially true; we now understand that the Chelsea Garden Club—which is exactly what it sounds like—and, specifically, two intrepid gardeners named Luis and Milton have been caring for those pits now for about a year. Thank you Luis and Milton—and thanks also to Em Schaefer, who describes herself as “the purple-haired person” that you should introduce yourself to if you see her out in the pits.

I think it is time for a few more of us to come together and help Luis, Milton, Em, and The Hort spruce the place up a little bit. If you’d like to be a part of this, please email us as highline28ba@gmail.com (or just write a message using our “tips” page).

(TV) crime spree continues on 24th Street

Law & Order SVU, currently shooting its 28th season, returns to 24th Street between 9th & 10th Avenues this Thursday night/Friday morning (9/3 & 9/4/26). Someone who lives on 24th Street will have to let us know why the Law & Order folks believe their block is the perfect setting for this particular victims unit as they really do shoot here quite regularly. We may wander down and get a live shot of the action; will post a new picture here if we do.