On a block where a kebab could once be had at 2 a.m. from Bereket, the 24-hour Turkish restaurant that was forced to close in 2014, there will now be a 30,000-square-foot Equinox gym and spa with a lounge and juice bar; condo residents will be able to access the two-story gym through a private entrance. Gone too, are places like Ray’s Pizza and Empanada Mama. While such spots and the unmemorable single-story buildings that once housed them could not claim any historic significance, they were popular haunts that gave the area its character.

“A lot of people grew up going to Ray’s Pizza on that block, and it’s gone now,” said James Rodriguez, an organizer for the Good Old Lower East Side, an affordable housing group. “And what’s it being replaced with? It’s an Equinox. A lot of people aren’t going to be able to afford an Equinox.”

The developers of 196 Orchard insist that the changes have not obliterated the retail that existed in the area, only moved it, since some of the shops are now in new locations, like Karaoke Boho, which reopened nearby. Other businesses, including Bereket, are gone. “I’m sorry they went out of business, but it’s part of evolution,” said Ben H. Shaoul, the founder and principal of the Magnum Real Estate Group, which is developing 196 Orchard with the Real Estate Equities Corporation.

Image Katz’s Delicatessen is known for its hefty pastrami sandwiches. Credit... Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

In fact, the condo’s ground floor will include 20,000 square feet of retail, with one storefront reserved for a locally owned business, likely a cafe or restaurant.

“You call it gentrification, I call it ‘cleaning it up,’ ” said Mr. Shaoul, who has been buying properties on the Lower East Side since 1998.

Katz’s survival, however, was always part of the plan. “We were adamant in keeping them there,” he said, sitting in Dirty French, a restaurant in the 20-story Ludlow Hotel that opened across from Katz’s in 2014. “I love pastrami.”