Yoga studio: Alex Schatzberg installed the wood stove.
Photo: Annie Schlechter
The students are everyone from kindergarten teachers to Alan Cumming. “You never know who’s going to walk through the door,” Alex Schatzberg says when we meet on the top floor of 9 St. Mark’s Place in the East Village. It’s his home and home to his New Vibe Yoga Studio. . It’s a cold day, but there’s plenty of light in the room. There is nothing taller than his building around here. He uses a wood stove to keep the room warm.
Schatzberg, 36, grew up in Marin County, California, and came to New York in 2006 to attend New York University’s Gallatin School, graduating in 2010. He has been practicing yoga since he was 18 years old and started New Vibe in Doris’ townhouse. Mr. Cornish was a co-founder of Two Boots His Pizza and one of his students. When she had to break up, so did he. But he had met Charles Fitzgerald. Charles Fitzgerald owned several buildings in the neighborhood, including Bowl & Board (later renamed In the Woods) and Grizzly Furs since he first moved to St. Mark’s Place in 1959. opened many stores. Fitzgerald still lives there. 12th place with his wife Kathy.
He offered Schatzburg a 1,600-square-foot live-work space at 9 St. Mark’s Place, an 1833 Federal-style building he bought for $75,000 in 1967 when it was an SRO. Fitzgerald renovated it, clearing out small rooms and opening up each floor, building fireplaces and recycling bricks. And he did so a year later when a boiler fire destroyed the building (except for the wooden spiral staircase). He had to start over. (The building is equipped with a sprinkler system.)
The ground floor of No. 9 currently houses Boka, a Korean restaurant specializing in fried chicken. Karaoke shop “Sing Sing” is located in what was once a parlor floor. And on the top floor is New Vibe Yoga. There are currently no other residential tenants in this building. When Ms. Schatzberg was unable to teach classes in person during the pandemic, Ms. Fitzgerald let Mr. Schatzberg manage the location and gave her a rent break. “I don’t look at being a landlord as, ‘Pay this and we don’t have anything to do with you.’ I feel like I have a responsibility to make sure they’re successful,” Fitzgerald says.
Schatzberg refinished all the wood floors and single-panel counters throughout the building. He created a rooftop garden and an outdoor shower. “If there’s a problem in the house, I take care of everything. So I’ve worked with carpenters, roofers, masons, plumbers, everyone.” Now, his yoga business is back on track. and launched the New Vibe clothing, fragrance and home goods lifestyle brand on the premises. “I call this place my little incubator,” he says.
Despite having a karaoke bar and restaurant downstairs, street noise is his only problem on weekends, but from his studio there are two tall trees that Fitzgerald planted as small saplings in the early ’70s. You can overlook the oak trees. A wall of plants that grow in a sunny, tropical environment brings the natural world into your home even in winter.
The wooden staircase is original to the building.
Photo: Annie Schlechter
The wood art collage at the entrance is by artist Brian Nissen. He was an early tenant of his 9 Marks Place, St. Schatzburg landlord Charles and used wood offcuts from his Fitzgerald shop, Bowl & Board, for this work.
Photo: Annie Schlechter
The kitchen was built using mostly recycled wood from Maine, where Schatzburg homeowner Charles Fitzgerald has a land conservation trust.
Photo: Annie Schlechter
“All the oil paintings on the walls are by Eugene Gregan,” Schatzberg said. “It’s a digitally woven bed throw from Eugene’s painting of a dahlia garden. The 1930s rug is made in China. We bought it from a rug dealer who closed his shop on Atlantic Avenue.”
Photo: Annie Schlechter
“A painting of people swimming in a pool was the first inspiration for me to create a collection of artwork,” Schatzberg says of this bedroom wall. “I turned the picture over. majestic bathers, For shower curtains and shorts. ”
Photo: Annie Schlechter
Alex Schatzberg practices yoga in a townhouse built in 1833.
Photo: Annie Schlechter
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