www.ourtownny.com Open in urlscan Pro
129.213.199.43  Public Scan

Form analysis
0 forms found in the DOM

Text Content

 * Home
   About Us Advertise Contact Us Subscribe To Paper Sign Up for Emails Where to
   Pick Us Up Submit Stuff

 * News
   Local News Crime Watch

 * Calendar
 * City Arts
 * Voices
   Columns Letters to the Editor

 * Food & Drink
 * Classifieds
 * Legals & Public Notices
 * Features
   Best of Manhattan Camp Guide Education Guide Environment Healthy Manhattan
   People Senior Living Guide Summer Guide The Way Forward


 * 
 * About Us
 * Advertise
 * Contact Us

   
 * NEWSLETTER
 * DONATE

x

 * Sections
   Home
   About Us Advertise Contact Us Subscribe To Paper Sign Up for Emails Where to
   Pick Us Up Submit Stuff
   
   News
   Local News Crime Watch
   
   Calendar City Arts
   Voices
   Columns Letters to the Editor
   
   Food & Drink Classifieds Legals & Public Notices
   Features
   Best of Manhattan Camp Guide Education Guide Environment Healthy Manhattan
   People Senior Living Guide Summer Guide The Way Forward

 * Do Stuff
   Subscribe to Paper Sign Up for Emails Where to Pick Us Up Submit Stuff Place
   a Classified or Legal Notice


© COPYRIGHT 2022 STRAUS NEWS
 1. Home
 2.  Home


AFTER BANKRUPTCY AUCTION OF THEATRE 80, AN 8,000 SIGNATURE PETITION URGES MAYOR
ADAMS TO USE EMINENT DOMAIN


LORCAN AND GENIE GILMORE OTWAY WERE EVICTED BY THE DEBT HOLDER OF THE BUILDINGS
AT #78 AND #80 ST. MARKS PLACE WHERE THEY HAD RUN THEATRE 80 AS WELL AS A TAVERN
AND A MUSEUM FOR YEARS. THE BUILDINGS WERE SOLD AT A BANKRUPTCY AUCTION ON MAY 9
TO A NEW OWNER, LIK HOLDINGS, WHICH PAID $8.8 MILLION TO TAKE OVER THE BUILDING.
NOW A CHANGE.ORG PETITION HAS SURPASSED 8,000 SIGNATURES URGING MAYOR ERIC ADAMS
TO USE EMINENT DOMAIN AS LAST DITCH EFFORT TO SAVE THE HISTORIC THEATER.

Keith J. Kelly

| 16 May 2023 | 05:44

The debt holder of iconic Theatre 80 on St. Marks Place evicted the longtime
owners, Lorcan Otway and his wife Genie Gilmore and on May 9 agreed to sell the
premises to a new owner. Now a petition on Change.org is urging Mayor Eric Adams
to use eminent domain to seize the property. It has gnarred over 8,000
signatures. Photo: Change.org
David Aviram, a co-founder of Maverick Real Estate Parnters, took over a $6
million defaulted loan on Theatre 80 and through penalties and sky high interest
rates, forced it to double to $12 million, helping to force the theater to
declare bankruptcy. Photo: Maverick Real Estate Partners web site.
Lorcan Otway and Genie Gilmore Otway, during their last days behind the bar at
the William Barnacle Tavern that adjoined Theatre 80. The husband and wife
owners were evicted from the bar, theater and the townhouse where they lived
above the establishments by the real estate developers that took over the debt.
Photo: Keith J. Kelly




The buildings that housed Theatre 80, as well as a tavern and the Museum of the
American Gangster has a tenative agreement to be sold to LIK Holdings, headed by
an Israeli businessman for $8.8 million.

But now a petition on change.org that has gathered over 8,000 signatures is
urging Mayor Eric Adams to begin an eminent domain case to save the historic
theater that has existed in the East Village since the Roaring 20s.

LIK Holdings emerged as the sole bidder at a bankruptcy court auction on May
9th, but has yet to actually fork over the money on its winning bid.

LIK Holdings which is headed by Ori Kushnir agreed to pay Maverick Real Estate
Partners, for the buildings. Maverick took over the debt after the longtime
owners Lorcan Otway and his wife Genie Gilmore declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy
for Theatre 80 in December 2020.

But it turns out that while there is an agreement to buy, LIK Holdings has yet
to pay the debt holder.

”We haven’t closed the transaction yet, but I made sure to tell every media
outlet and politico we spoke with that our first priority is to sell the
building or parts of it back to an interested theater operator, or to figure out
a way to work with them,” said Ori Kushnir, a principal at LIK Hodings in a
comment he left on the Save Theater 80 Facebook page. “We are in no rush to
decide what to do there other than necessary fixes.”

Meanwhile, the Otways who were evicted from the their home and the theater they
ran for decades, are still hoping they can somehow return. “Theft is theft,”
Otway posted on the Save Theatre 80 Facebook page. “I will fight to my last
breath,” he wrote. “How about you?”

“We, the signers listed below, ask you to save Theatre 80 Saint Marks with your
power of eminent domain and give the building to “Historic 80 Saint Marks,” the
501c3 your administration helped to empower,” reads the petition directed at
Mayor Eric Adams.

The Mayor’s Commissioner of Cultural Affairs had actually helped to establish
the theater as a not for profit entity, Historic 80 St. Marks, but due to the
shortness of time between its establishment as a not- for-profit and the May 9th
bankruptcy auction, efforts to find a deep pocketed philanthropic backer were
not successful.

Lorcan Otway’s father Howard has bought the buildings and theater 59 years ago
and Otway had lived in a townhouse apartment above the theater he had worked at
since he was a youngster.

But Otway, who is 70 and his wife who is in her 60s were evicted from their
longtime home last month. Maverick Real Estate Partners had initially taken over
the mortgage and because the Otways were unable to pay it during the pandemic,
had jacked up the interest rate to 25 percent and slapped on penalties that
caused the defaulted loan to balloon from its original $6 million to $12
million.

Maverick did not return numerous calls seeking comment. Maryanne O’Toole, who
was appointed trustee by the court shortly after the Otways sought Chapter 11
bankruptcy in December 2020 also did not return calls.

LIK Holdings and Kushnar has a contentious relationship with the Otways.

As covid restrictions initially eased, Kushnar ran a company that had agreed to
run the kitchen and provide food for sale to the patrons of the William Barnacle
Tavern, the bar adjoining the theater. But Lorcan Otway said the service was
sporadic and the food providers were frequently claiming they had run out of
food by 5 pm. So Otway brought in another food supplier to sell shepherd’s pie
to his patrons because early in the pandemic, in order for a pub to stay open,
it had to sell food.

At that point, the LIK Holding principals sued claiming breach of an “oral
contract” to handle food sales for ten years. Otway said no such oral contract
ever existed. An attorney for LIK Holdings did not return calls seeking comment.

The Change.org petions says: “The two-year shutdown of businesses by New York
State devastated NY’s theaters and bankrupted the owners, the Otways, when a
predatory firm purchased their mortgage and doubled their debt.”

The petion continued, “On May 9, Theatre 80’s building sold at an “auction” with
only two bidders for $8.8 million to Ori Kushnir, a former tenant of the
Otways,” says the petition urging Eric Adams to take action. “Your use of
eminent domain would discourage further disasterous profiteering, and it would
address the public need. Last year, NY lost 55 percent of its theater jobs
according to Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

“Although the Otways will lose 15 million dollars in equity, they would at least
have a home and a job. The federal government turned these hardworking senior
citizens out on the street with no resources, a couple who have given their
lives to the theater.

This injustice must be addressed by you, Mayor Adams.”

Since their eviction, the Otways have taken up residence in Bonitas House, run
by lower East Side rebel priest, Father Pat Moloney.

“Without Father Pat, we’d be homeless,” said Lorcan Otway.

“Lorcan Otway, with the aid of his wife Genie have given the American public
some of the finest theater we have been able to attend,” said Crystal Field,
executive director of the nearby Theater for the New City. “This along with
sustenance with food and drink have made some of the happiest moments in my
theater life. Anything we can do to help Theatre 80, should be a major mission
for ourselves and all of New York City.”

> Anything we can do to help Theatre 80, should be a major mission for ourselves
> and all of New York City.” Crystal Field, executive director, Theater for the
> New City.


 * Facebook
 * Twitter
 * Comentários




TAGS


1 Genie Gilmore Otway
2 Keith J. Kelly
3 Lorcan Otway
4 Real Estate
5 Theater



Get News Alerts
Get the Newspaper




 * MOST VIEWED

1
PRIME


2 SUICIDES IN 2 DAYS: 20 Y.O. ASPIRING MODEL AND 31 Y.O GOOGLE ENGINEER

2
PRIME


PICKLEBALL WARS AT CARL SCHURZ PARK: ENTHUSIASTS BATTLE OTHER RESIDENTS OVER REC
SPACE

3
PRIME


IMMIGRANTS BEGIN ARRIVING AT FORMER NYPD ACADEMY IN GRAMERCY PARK

4
PRIME


HOMELESS MAN KILLED ON F TRAIN AFTER BEING PUT IN HEADLOCK BY EX-MARINE, RULED A
HOMICIDE

5
PRIME


PRIMARY CHAOS: WHEN CANDIDATE DID NOT SPECIFY THAT HE’S MALE, JUDGE TOSSED ALL
OF HIS PETITIONS



 * MOST COMMENTED

1
PRIME


2 SUICIDES IN 2 DAYS: 20 Y.O. ASPIRING MODEL AND 31 Y.O GOOGLE ENGINEER

2
PRIME


CONGESTION PRICING: IT COULD BE HERE BY THIS TIME NEXT YEAR AFTER MTA, FEDS OK
PLANS

3
PRIME


PROTESTORS ANGRY ABOUT JORDAN NEELY’S KILLING ARRESTED ON SUBWAY TRACKS AS
CHARGES FOR DANIEL PENNY REMAIN UNCERTAIN

4
PRIME


SADLY IT’S TIME TO BLOW UP THIS RANGERS SQUAD, AND FAST

5
PRIME


CRIME WATCH UES 05.11.23






 * Special Sections
   Best of Manhattan Camp Guide Education Guide Environment Healthy Manhattan
   People Senior Living Guide Summer Guide

 * Do Stuff
   Subscribe to Paper Sign Up for Emails Where to Pick Us Up Submit Stuff Place
   a Classified or Legal Notice

 * About Us
   Our History Advertise Contact Us

 * Sister Sites
   Chelsea News NY Our Town Our Town Downtown The Spirit NY Press


© Copyright 2019 Straus News
All Rights Reserved | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Accessibility
Statement