Sephora—The New Face of St. Mark’s in a Nine Story Tower?

St. Mark’s Place, the three-block stretch of Eighth Street from Avenue A to Third Avenue, is a prominent hotspot for counterculture, punk rock, and indie nightlife. However, increasing gentrification of the block is painting a new image of the area, one that seems indifferent to the effervescence of the East Village locus.

A nine-story office building now occupies 1 St. Mark’s Place, with a 7,800-square-foot Sephora shop on the ground floor, which started business in May of this year. The building was designed by Morris Adjmi Architects and was developed by Real Estate Equities Corporation (REEC), encompassing 49,194 square feet of office space.

Tenants of the upstairs office spaces have not been identified.

Previous businesses on the northeast corner of Third Avenue and St. Mark’s included McDonald’s, Korilla Barbecue, Papaya King, and the Continental. In November 2017, REEC bought the 99-year leasehold for nearly $150 million. The existing businesses were all demolished in 2019.

Initial plans for the building’s size experienced backlash from residents, and in 2021 the construction work was stopped for 10 months when Madison Capital Realty tried to foreclose on the property.

Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, heavily opposed the project at 1 St. Marks, and Community Board 3, which covers St. Mark’s Place, also disapproved. An official resolution after a meeting in December 2019 states, “all members of the community who spoke at the hearing spoke against the transfer of air rights, arguing that the 10-story building would not be harmonious with the character of the neighborhood and that the funds to be allocated to the already restored landmark do not justify a larger building across the street.”

In late August 2022, foundation work began and construction finished in 2026.

One comment to an EV Grieve post from June 2026 wrote, “They only feast, fuss, and eff in a superficial status driven economy. Capitalism loves them and they pay a lot in taxes.”

Our Town Downtown spoke with businesses on St. Mark’s about the cosmetics store’s presence. Jess, manager of Flamingos Vintage Pound on 4 St. Mark’s Place, shared, “It’s weird to have a corporate business like that on St. Mark’s, especially taking up that much space. We were hoping–you know, as much as we don’t like the idea of it being there–we were hoping it would bring more people in, and I don’t really think it’s changed foot traffic in the area in terms of for the good.”

She noted the stark difference in appearance between Sephora’s swanky exterior against the backdrop of rustic, pre-war lower rises that give St. Mark’s its charm, creating a dichotomous look.

When asked about ongoing commercial changes to St. Mark’s, Jess shared, “I’m not a fan of them. I would like [St. Mark’s] to stay small, local, small business. This used to be very much a punk, alternative, music-forward, entertainment-forward area and now it’s mostly just food.”

Jess anticipates that small aesthetic businesses which are currently vacating St. Mark’s will also be replaced by commercial businesses like Sephora.

Damian Bielak, who works at Village Works, a cafe and independent bookshop on 12 St. Mark’s Place, intentionally supports small businesses in the city in efforts to boycott large corporations. “Keep it local,” he said, advocating for tangibility in exploring small businesses and engaging with real people. “It makes me feel a little bit more sane because you can talk to people–they become your neighbors.”

Damian thinks that Sephora is adhering to St. Mark’s obsession with punk through a fabricated approach. “[Sephora] is like an exaggerated version of a synthetic punk image.”

Damian noted how, for many, St. Mark’s represents the quintessential image of New York which many tourists seek: chaos, nightlife, and an amalgamation of art hubs. He has hope that with the new presence of Sephora, passersby will grow to appreciate the street’s niche small businesses even more. “I’m not gonna let Sephora affect us. If it does, it will just make people discover [our] store.”

Recent real estate developments in the area are amplifying the replacements of small businesses by large corporations.

Theatre 80 at 80 St. Mark’s Place, whose legacy as a NYC art hub lives on through visible concrete handprints on the sidewalk with accompanying celebrity signatures, was forced to close down in 2023 after Lorcan Otway, the second-generation owner of the theater, defaulted on a loan that had been taken out originally to settle a dispute with his brother Thomas.

The family-owned theater was first bought by his father, Howard Otway, in 1964 and was passed down originally to Howard’s wife Florence, and a three way trust of Florence and their two sons, Lorcan and Thomas. After his mother passed away, a bitter family feud ended with Lorcan taking out a loan to buy out his estranged brother, who subsequently died shortly after the settlement was reached.

The theater and pub were forced to close during COVID and fell behind on the mortgage, eventually entering into bankruptcy. Lorcan and his wife Genie, who were residing in one of the four apartments above the theater, were ordered off the property in April 2023 by a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee. Madison Capital, the same company that bought the defaulted loan at 1 St. Mark’s, had picked up the defaulted loan at Theatre 80.

Lorcan Otway relocated upstate and is still bitter about losing the building that housed his home and the beloved theater and pub. “We were robbed by disaster profiteers, the federal and the state governments,” he said. “If we could start again, it would not be in NYC as property is no longer owned by people in the landlord business or any other business other than speculation, gambling on property at the expense of NYC being NYC.: He added, “New York is dead to me.”

The building, which includes apartments above the ground floor pub and theater, has remained empty. A call to Madison Capital was not returned by press time.