Iconic Papaya King to be replaced by 17-story luxury high-rise as locals decry ‘disgusting’ change in neighborhood

An old school Upper East Side building that housed Anthony Bourdain’s favorite Big Apple hot dog stand will be bulldozed to make way for luxury condos – leaving longtime residents red hot.

Locals and passersby got frank with The Post on Monday over news that Papaya King’s modest, single-story building at 86th Street and Third Avenue would be replaced with a 17-story tower.

“It completely changes the fabric of the neighborhood. I’m a native New Yorker born and bred,” said 69-year-old Nancy Dreyfuss, who remembered having her first hot dog at the spot when she was about seven years old.

Papaya King, which Bourdain described as “the apex of the art of hotdog making,” closed last year while a planned new location for the stand across the street closed before it ever even opened its doors.

Now its original site will be razed for 25 luxury units, and the neon-gilded smiley-faced façade of Papaya King will be replaced by a lobby and mixed retail space, records show.

For some the news is the latest sign that the character of the neighborhood is being chipped away — as it moves further away from its roots as an immigrant enclave full of German and Austrian restaurants and shops.

“You have all these fancy buildings with very fancy people, who don’t shop in the mom and pop shops, who only want the fancy Lululemons and Sephoras, and a lot of the mom and pop shops have closed,” Dreyfuss said.

“They’re building them taller and taller and they’re blocking out the sun,” she went on. “Poor Papaya King couldn’t survive. They never made it over the street, they were supposed to move but they didn’t.”

Papaya King first opened in 1932 and operated out of the 86th Street location for 91 years. It closed its doors in 2023 after its landlord sold the property in 2021 for $21 million.

Queens developer ZD Jasper then bought the building for about $29 million with air rights in 2023, according to the Real Deal. The developer did not respond to request for comment about their high-rise plans.

Papaya King had promised to move across the street — even stripping out much of its old interior and rebuilding the modest shop in the new location — but following a dispute with the new landlord over kitchen infrastructure the deal fell through by early 2024, according to Eater.

It remains unclear whether the beloved shop will reopen in a different spot.

In the meantime, hot dog lovers remain bereft of their favorite fix.

“I was just talking to my cousin on the phone, saying ‘How is it Papaya King has shut down in Manhattan?’” said 48-year-old Hoboken construction worker Jean-Paul OIivieri as he ate lunch from a Chick-fil-A down the block..

“If Papaya King was still open I would have had a hotdog for lunch, not Chick-fil-A, 100%,” he said.

Lifelong Upper East Sider Brian Jansen, 67 — who first went to Papaya King when he was younger than 10 — called the replacement of Papaya Dog with luxury apartments “a disgrace.”

“We’re good for condos around here. We need more Papaya Kings. Any locally owned or independently operated business would be beneficial, but you can see that’s not the case here,” he said.

“The area is going towards the high-rise and going towards an elimination of the middle class,” he said.

“Now they’re lined with the Gap, Old Navy and Wholefoods.”