An excerpt:
When the March 2020 pandemic lockdowns shuttered entertainment and hospitality industries everywhere, Otway couldn’t make his loan payments. In November 2020 he tried to negotiate an extension on the loan. He learned that his debt had been sold to Maverick Real Estate Partners. His interest rate had jumped from 10% to 24%. Maverick did not respond to requests for comment.Last December, Otway filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which would have allowed him to reorganize his finances and pay off the debt with future profits. But a bankruptcy court trustee said they didn't believe the theater, museum, and bar had enough income to make that plan work. Now the court has ordered the properties to be sold.For the Otways, this solution isn’t viable. They live in an apartment upstairs along with other tenants in the building. “We would lose our future and our past,” Otway said. “You can imagine the nightmare we’re facing — it’s Kafkaesque.”
Read the full piece here.
This city is truly awful sometimes. If the Theatre goes away St. Marks will be nothing but a hollow husk of drunk college kids.
ReplyDeleteVery Awful. People should have never complied with these lockdowns. This “Plandemic” was all about control and NYC was very willing to comply. We destroyed our own businesses during the protests and neglected them by complying w the lockdowns.
DeleteNah, piss off with shoehorning crackpot conspiracy theories into this.
DeleteWhy are people in denial regarding the impact of lockdowns on nightlife, independent retail and the arts/theatres? Is anything people disagree with now a conspiracy theory?
DeleteThere has to be a legal way out. Maybe we should start protesting beloved businesses being forced out-there’s too many to count at this point and elected officials don’t pay attention to anything else
ReplyDeleteThe legal way is to make it a historical landmark.
ReplyDeleteLandmark committee would never approve that, when they get the real facts of this case. You can't make $10M, or even just $6M debt go away. The original lender have rights too. And everyone just commenting about the theater, but what about all the other tenants, who now have to find new homes to live in, because of the owners bankruptcy?
ReplyDeleteIf there was a way, it was to sell the land parcel and air rights, with assurance of keeping the theater, preserved as much as possible, like Theatre for the New City did.
The synagogue on east 6th st. Was saved that way(do the residential tenants have leases that can protect them🥊
DeleteMy 2 cents♥️
ReplyDeleteHave a heavy fund raiser.
24 hour -8 days a week.
Performers.
Musicians.
Start now🥊🥊🥊🎻👏👏👏👏
Another nail in the East Village coffin.
ReplyDelete