[Photo from last month via @michaelkbusch]
The Commercial Observer has a Q&A with Gregory Kraut, a managing partner at K Property Group, the newish owners of 143 E. Houston St. — the former Sunshine Cinema.
Kraut offers a few details on why the property was of interest ... and when they plan on tearing down the structure built in 1898.
Here's part of the interview with a passage on the Sunshine:
Why did you want the Sunshine Cinema building?
Because we saw where retail is going. We saw what was happening on Orchard Street where they have Equinox, CVS and T.J. Maxx, and Whole Foods was on the other side so we’re right there. We’re like, Are you kidding? This is a great location. We’re putting up a spec 63,000-square-foot office building that’s going to be nine stories. Roger Ferris is our architect. He is awesome.
So no theater there.
No theater. Zero. We’re demolishing it in two months.
You don’t feel bad?
No, not at all. First of all they were trying for years to make money and they couldn’t. The area has changed, and quite frankly, the business model didn’t, and so we gave them options to renew. They had several opportunities to buy the building.
East End Capital and K Property Group bought the building for $31.5 million last spring. They filed demolition permits to take down the three-level structure here between Eldridge and Forsyth back in November.
The new building permits — a 9-story boutique office complex with a retail component — haven't been posted just yet at the DOB.
The five-screen Sunshine Cinema closed on Jan. 21 after a 17-year run.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Discarded theater seats and goodbyes at the Sunshine Cinema
The 9-story boutique office building coming to the former Sunshine Cinema space
A celebratory ad on the purchase of 139 E. Houston St., current home of the Sunshine Cinema