The new office building at the gateway to the East Village at Third Avenue and St. Mark's Place has its first retail tenant.
The mall-friendly Sephora has signed a lease for the 7,800-square-foot, ground-floor retail space at 1 St. Mark's Place, as
The Real Deal first
reported. The publication noted that "It's a promising step forward for a project that's weathered its fair share of challenges." (
See below.)
There haven't been any reports yet about tenants for the office space above in the 9-story building, which was reportedly built on spec.
Some history from EVG reporting here... in November 2017, the commercial and residential real estate firm Real Estate Equities Corporation (REEC) picked up the 99-year leasehold for the assemblage on this NW corner for nearly $150 million.
The Gabay family had owned the buildings for generations. The previous buildings, which included retail tenants such as Korilla BBQ, the Continental, and McDonald's, were demolished in the summer of 2019. The size of the building caused a lot of drama (flashback), and work was stopped for 10 months in 2021 when Madison Capital Realty tried foreclosing on the property.
Foundation work finally started in late August 2022 — after crews and equipment were assembled here in
the summer of 2020.
Regarding the mall-friendly comment, a retail tenant like Sephora isn't surprising along this corridor, as anyone who remembers the Gap (1988-2001) on the NW corner of St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue can confirm. Mid-block between Second Avenue and Third Avenue, in the early 2000s, a developer gutted 19-23 St. Mark's Place and added a new façade, creating retail spaces whose tenants have included a Chipotle.
As previously reported, the mall-friendly Sephora signed a lease here at the base of the 9-story office building this past September. (TRD had the news first.) 
