ICYMI: 19-23 St. Mark's Place sells

News surfaced last week that there's a new owner of 19-23 St. Mark's Place, the 8-story retail-residential complex between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. 

According to public records and published reports, real-estate investment firm Movcap bought the property for $27.5 million. 

This is the second time the building changed hands in five years: UBS Realty Investors paid $34 million for it in early 2020. 

The retail tenants include restaurants CheLi and Szechuan Mountain House, plus Mango Mango, T-swirl Crêpe, and Teso Life. There are 41 residential units on the upper floors (including at least one really nice one). 

And you can't always see those upper floors that look like they blew in from another building...

Movcap founder Lawrence Movtady told Crain's that he intends to continue operating the property "with some minor renovations and touch-ups." 

And! 

"It's always exciting when there's some history to a property," he said. "It definitely adds a bit of cache and opportunity for branding." 

Yes! History. The address has a long history. As Off the Grid noted: 

The buildings at 19-23 St. Mark’s Place are an excellent example of how the East Village has changed over time from a wealthy merchants neighborhood to a landing spot for immigrants, to the launch pad for numerous counterculture and artistic movements. Where else would one find a building which had been townhouses for wealthy families, a ballroom, a gangster hangout, a Polish wedding chapel, and a performance venue with the Velvet Underground as the house band? 

In the early 2000s, a developer gutted the space and added a new façade, creating mall-friendly retail spaces whose tenants have included a Chipotle and CBGB gift shop. 

Most recently, the long-empty retail space outside No. 23 has been a crashpad for summer travelers...

A sidewalk returns to full view and use along St. Mark's Place

Yesterday we reported that workers were finally removing the sidewalk bridge outside 19-23 St. Mark's Place. 

EVG reader KT Hendrickson shared these night/day photos showing the triumphant return of an unencumbered sidewalk between Second Avenue and Third Avenue...

The bridge had been up for some six years. As we understand it, work on the 8-story building was wrapped up last summer ... and apparently, a COVID-era backlog with the city caused delays in the signing off on the work.

Miracle on St. Mark's: Sidewalk bridge coming down outside No. 19-23

Photo by Steven 

Workers from the Department of Miracles are out this morning... removing the long-standing sidewalk bridge from 19-23 St. Mark's Place. 

The structure outside the 8-story retail-residential complex between Second Avenue and Third Avenue has been up for nearly six years. Google Street View shows that it arrived sometime between September 2016 and September 2017. (Thanks to the reader who checked that!)

19-23 St. Mark's Place sells for $34 million

[Photo via]

UBS Realty Investors is the new owner of 19-23 St. Mark's Place, the 8-story retail-residential complex between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

Cape Advisors sold the property for $34 million, according to @TradedNY.

The building features 41 residential units, five retail spaces and a sidewalk bridge dating back at least five years.


[Photo yesterday by Steven]

Most recently, Teso Life, a Japanese variety store, signed a lease for the former St. Mark's Market, which closed here this past October after 16 years in business. A restaurant called CheLi is in the works for the upper retail level.

The address has a long history. As Off the Grid noted:

The buildings at 19-23 St. Mark’s Place are an excellent example of how the East Village has changed over time from a wealthy merchants neighborhood to a landing spot for immigrants, to the launch pad for numerous counterculture and artistic movements. Where else would one find a building which had been townhouses for wealthy families, a ballroom, a gangster hangout, a Polish wedding chapel, and a performance venue with the Velvet Underground as the house band?

In the early 2000s, a developer gutted the space, added a new façade as well as a few floors that look as if they blew in from the Hamptons. The developer also created the mall-friendly retail spaces, whose tenants have included a Chipotle and CBGB gift shop.


[EVG photo from 2008]

The building also features the $18,000-per-month unit, which Daniel Craig was said to be renting at one point.

Previously on EV Grieve:
St. Mark's Market is dead