Permits have been filed to demolish the five-story building at 86 University Place in Greenwich Village and replace it with a 10-story, 193-foot residential building containing seven condominium-style residences, according to applications filed with the city. The project sits on a block between East 11th and East 12th streets, just south of the Union Square subway station, and the man behind it is better known for pasta than permits: Rezdôra co-owner David Switzer.
As reported by New York YIMBY, Switzer is listed as the owner behind the applications, with the entity 27E20 LLC also tied to his name. The proposed building would yield 16,806 square feet total, including 15,213 square feet of residential space and 1,593 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor, with an average unit scope of roughly 2,173 square feet suggesting the residences will likely be condos rather than rentals. Plans call for a concrete-based structure with a cellar, and demolition permits for the existing five-story building were filed in August. No estimated completion date has been announced.
Switzer bought the 6,816-square-foot mixed-use building for $8 million in March 2025 through the entity 86 Up LLC, according to PincusCo. The seller, Gould Investors, had purchased the property back in February 2015 for $13.7 million — meaning the firm took a loss of more than $5.7 million, or roughly 41.6 percent, in offloading it a decade later. Switzer financed his purchase with a $5.5 million mortgage from Derby Copeland Capital, a New York-focused private lender that specializes in short-term real estate loans, PincusCo reported.
From Taco Pop-Up to Condo Tower
Before filing demolition and construction permits this year, Switzer kept the existing building active with a six-month pastrami taco pop-up restaurant, per a report from The Real Deal. It's a familiar pre-development move: hold a commercial space with a short-term concept while the paperwork for something far more permanent works its way through the city.
Switzer is a co-owner of the Michelin-starred Greenwich Village restaurant Rezdôra and heads the real estate firm Hammock Development, which has been quietly assembling property near his flagship restaurant — the same outlet notes the firm acquired 25 East 20th Street in November 2025 and 12 East 12th Street in June 2026. Hoodline previously covered a related West Village deal that also named Rezdôra's partners as buyers of 86 University Place and nearby addresses, part of a broader pattern of restaurant operators turning into neighborhood developers. The architect of record for the University Place project is Brian Ripel, principal of Combined Architecture DPC, who previously led the 2014 renovation of the LGBT Community Center in Manhattan and designed the 15,000-square-foot Cliffs climbing facility in Harlem in 2021, according to the Center for Architecture.
A Rowhouse With a Storied Past
The building slated for demolition dates to 1840, when it was built as a four-story townhouse for philanthropist Benjamin H. Field, who helped found the New York Free Circulating Library, an institution that later merged into the New York Public Library. The structure gained a fifth story in 1880 and a two-story commercial storefront addition in 1919, according to Village Preservation.
During Prohibition, the building housed a speakeasy called The Royalist, run by Barney Gallant — who earned fame as the first person in New York City prosecuted under the Volstead Act, per the same Village Preservation account. In the 1940s and 1950s, the address hosted Bagatelle, a historic lesbian bar frequented by authors Audre Lorde and Ann Bannon.
Village Preservation has repeatedly urged the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission to grant historic district protections to 86 University Place and other unprotected buildings in what it calls the South of Union Square corridor. The site's C1-7 zoning carries a residential floor area ratio of up to 6.02, permitting as much as 14,116 buildable square feet — the regulatory window that makes a 10-story residential tower possible on a lot once occupied by a 19th-century townhouse.
Part of a Wider Neighborhood Shift
The project arrives as the University Place commercial corridor sees a wave of new activity, with retail and food concepts opening nearby, including Papa d'Amour at 64 University Place, a trend Hoodline has tracked in its coverage of the area. For now, the five-story building with its speakeasy-and-rowhouse history stands behind filed demolition papers, with no completion date set for whatever comes next.
