Saturday, September 5, 2026 · No. 26
Good morning, Yorkville. The corner of 86th and Third is about to get a lot more relaxed: a 14,000-square-foot “social spa” — pool, cold plunges, saunas, no phones, no alcohol — has signed on for a decade. Also today: a Hamptons fitness studio has quietly opened on East 86th, a Yorkville rental tower with a $45,000 penthouse is leasing, and everything you need to know before Monday's holiday. Plus two corrections from Friday's edition, owed and delivered.
The Lead
A 14,000-square-foot social spa is coming to 86th and Third
Othership — the bathhouse brand behind “social spa” locations in Flatiron and Williamsburg — has a 10-year lease for roughly 14,000 square feet at 201 East 86th Street, at the Third Avenue corner, per Commercial Observer's report on the deal. Gothamist, which quotes co-founder and CEO Robbie Bent on the concept, reports the buildout is slated to finish in 2027; Athletech News and Patch have also covered the plans. What's planned: a pool, communal cold plunge, hot tub, sauna and steam room, with alcohol-free, phone-free social programming. To be clear, this is a signed lease, not an opening date — but it is one more sign that the 86th Street retail corridor is turning into something else.
via Commercial Observer
Openings & Closings
A Hamptons fitness studio has quietly opened at The Harper
The Formula x Meredith — a Bridgehampton-born studio mixing low-impact pilates, barre and HIIT — has opened at The Harper, 310 East 86th Street, its first New York City location, per Upper East Site; East Side Feed lists it in its latest business-openings roundup. Commercial Observer reported the 1,920-square-foot, 10-year lease when it was signed last November. Worth noting: it's the same building where BODYROK signed a pilates-studio lease in January, per Patch, and, as far as any public source shows, still hasn't opened.
via Upper East Site
Human Head Records has an address: 455 East 83rd
A follow-up to Friday's item on the Bushwick record shop heading uptown: East Side Feed reports Human Head Records has already quietly opened its Yorkville outpost at 455 East 83rd Street, between First and York Avenues, and has been open since the start of August — so the crate-diggers among you are a month behind. We haven't been by yet; check the shop's own channels for hours before making the trip.
via East Side Feed
Around the Neighborhood
The Langdon is leasing, with October move-ins on the calendar
The Langdon, the 45-unit rental tower at 288 East 88th Street on the southwest corner of Second Avenue, is leasing, with rents running from $12,400 to $45,000 a month and first move-ins planned for October, per New York YIMBY and Hoodline this week. The Alchemy-ABR and Azur project was designed by Hill West Architects — and yes, the amenity list includes a pet spa. Neither report includes a leased-unit count yet; we'll be watching how fast Yorkville absorbs a $45,000 penthouse.
via New York YIMBY
This Week
Your long-weekend cheat sheet
Monday is Labor Day. Alternate-side parking is suspended citywide, per DOT's 2026 calendar, and Sanitation trash, recycling and compost collection is suspended for the holiday, per DSNY's schedule — check 311 if Monday is your regular pickup day. Asphalt Green's pools, closed since mid-August for annual maintenance, reopen Tuesday, September 8, per the facility's own schedule page. John Jay Pool — just south of our line at 77th Street — enters the final week of its free outdoor season; it closes for the year September 13, per NYC Parks. The 82nd Street Saturday greenmarket and Ruppert Park's Sunday market run as usual, per GrowNYC.
via NYC DOT
One week out: the Gracie Square Art Show returns to East End Avenue
Next Saturday and Sunday, September 12–13, the juried outdoor art show takes over East End Avenue alongside Carl Schurz Park from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., free, with kids' art workshops in the mornings, per the Conservancy's events calendar — proceeds support the park. If the grandparents are in town for the holiday week, this is the outing.
via Carl Schurz Park Conservancy
Corrections
Two corrections from Friday's edition
Friday's item on the East 80s Yorkville Alliance, as first published, called the proposal Yorkville's first Business Improvement District and said the district map and assessment figures weren't available. Our own August 21 reporting had the footprint and the budget: this is at least the third attempt at a Yorkville BID, and the Alliance describes a twenty-block footprint from First to Park Avenue between 84th and 88th Streets — reaching west of Third Avenue, outside the boundary we hold ourselves to — with an initial budget of about $900,000. The per-owner assessment formula is still not public. Separately, Friday's listing item placed 412 East 89th Street a block and a half from Carl Schurz Park; the listing says two blocks. Both were fixed on the site Friday morning; this note is the record.
via Upper East Site
Yorkville, Remembered
The riverside walk named for the man who walked the whole island
The elevated esplanade carrying John Finley Walk along the East River through Carl Schurz Park was completed in 1939 as part of Robert Moses's East River Drive project - construction had to cross the private property of 10 Gracie Square to connect the route. The city formally dedicated it as John Finley Walk in July 1942, three years later, honoring John H. Finley, the former City College president and New York Times associate editor famous for his long walks circling the entire perimeter of Manhattan. At Mayor Fiorello La Guardia's suggestion, the walk's iron signs carry a silhouette of Finley in his distinctive forward-leaning gait.
source: Carl Schurz Park Conservancy
One more thing: if the long weekend leaves you restless, consider the patron saint of today's history corner, who liked to walk the entire perimeter of Manhattan. Nobody is asking that of you. The esplanade from Gracie Point to 81st and back is plenty, and the river does most of the entertaining.