Foxface sandwiches owner wins Theatre 80 St. Mark’s with $8.8 million bid; Otherwise, not many bites at auction

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | The winning bidder for Theatre 80 St. Mark’s used to sell some mean muffulettas there.

Ori Kushnir and his life partner currently still live upstairs in the building on a month-to-month lease, and their artisanal sandwich shop, Foxface, was formerly a commercial tenant there.

There were reportedly only two bidders Tuesday morning for the iconic 14,400-square-foot East Village property, located just west of First Avenue at 78-80 St. Mark’s Place. Last Friday, Kushnir put in what is known as a “stalking horse bid” of $8.8 million, which sets the dollar amount at which the bidding commences. And, in fact, that wound up being the final winning bid, as well.

The other bidder was reportedly Mark O’Brien, a luxury real estate developer and broker, who apparently did not place a bid higher than Kushnir’s. O’Brien’s company, Build Me a Brownstone, has done more than $45 million in ground-up construction, mostly in New York City; Greenwich, Connecticut; and New Zealand. He also happens to live nearby and participated in an ongoing play-reading series at Theatre 80.

The private auction was led by Maltz Auctions.

The sale will officially close in four weeks. The sale price will cover the $6.1 million lien on the building from 2019 held by Maverick Real Estate Partners.

Speaking last Friday, Kushnir told The Village Sun that his first priority is to renovate the property.

“There’s a lot of renovation [that needs to be done],” he said. “It’s a big building.”

He said the ground floor’s black-and-white floor tiles might possibly have asbestos, which would require careful removal. The place’s exterior brickwork also likely needs to be repointed, he said.

As for whether he plans to rent out the building or sell it, he was not ready to say. He did note that Village Preservation — which is pushing for the property to be landmarked — has also expressed interest in saving the theater as a nonprofit.

“Our first preference,” Kushnir said, “is to work with the preservation / theater groups to see if we can find a viable solution for keeping a community space alive in the building.”

As for why there were only two bidders, Kushnir speculated it was because of the effort to landmark the building. Landmarked structures carry more regulations and restrictions than the average building. The property also does not have much in the way of development rights — a.k.a. “air rights” that could be sold to developers for use on nearby projects — another thing that would have made it more attractive to potential buyers.

“The brokers were showing the building to a large number of investors over the past few months,” he said. “I can only guess that the current economic environment coupled with the campaign to landmark the building scared away potential bidders.”

Kushnir has rented an apartment in 78-80 St. Mark’s Place since 2005. The Foxface sandwich shop, sporting a takeout window to the sidewalk, opened in the building in 2019 and closed in September 2022. The shop was a joint venture of Kushnir and his life partner, Sivan Lahat. They also work in software.

For Lorcan Otway, 70, who has lived in the building nearly six decades, ever since he was a young boy and his father owned and ran the place, the sandwich shop owner gaining the property is hard to swallow. The latter is currently suing Otway, charging that Foxface had the exclusive right to serve food to customers of the William Barnacle Tavern — another Theatre 80 business, which was run by Lorcan Otway and his wife, Genie Gilmore — but that Lorcan and Genie [the Otways] blatantly violated this by serving shepherd’s pie in the evenings. Lorcan Otway continues to slam the lawsuit as “frivolous.”

Otway in the past would say that he feared Kushnir wanted the building.

Kushnir said that he gave Otway’s late mother a loan toward the building’s mortgage at one point — yet later refrained from making further loans, feeling the place’s financial footing was too tenuous. In 2018, Otway had to buy out his brother’s share in the building for $2.75 million.

As the May 9 auction loomed, the Otways and their supporters were urging Mayor Adams to step in and acquire the building for the city by eminent domain. Obviously, that did not happen. But the Otways still hope it can. The plan would then be for the building to be given to a nonprofit to operate.

“Now the thing to do is to pressure the mayor to take [the building] by eminent domain and give it to the nonprofit,” Lorcan Otway said, speaking shortly after the auction. “Politically, it’s the right thing to do — and it’s the right thing to do, in terms of justice.

“I have faith in this mayor,” he added. “He has shown, on a number of issues, to stand on his principles rather than the party politic.”

Meanwhile, after being evicted from their duplex residential apartment in the Theatre 80 building in early April, the Otways continue to live with Father Pat Moloney, in his building just east of Tompkins Square Park. Their room is free, but the living isn’t easy after Lorcan’s bank accounts were seized under Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

“All I know is that I’m busking for food,” Otway said. “I did two sessions in Tompkins Square Park: I started out with readings from my book, then did a lecture on changing ethics in balladry. I have to get my Uilleann pipes fixed — Irish pipes, like in the theme music of ‘Titanic.'”

Otway says he’s currently living in “a single suit of clothes,” with one pair of shoes. He and Genie are “counting every penny,” as he put it.

“We are currently penniless,” he stated. “Last night, we had salad and popcorn [for dinner].

“I long for a cup of coffee,” he sighed. “You know what a cup of coffee in this neighborhood costs? Coffee has become a luxury item.”

Yet, they’re not asking Father Pat for any more help than a room.

“We don’t want to be an extra burden on him,” he said.

Lorcan has also been availing himself of the free vegetarian chili given out in the northeast corner of Tompkins Square Park — but, again, doesn’t want to take too much, fearing it could mean someone else might have to go without.

“We don’t want to be too much of a burden on any one source,” he explained.

Meanwhile, speaking of food, Otway claimed that Kushnir’s lawsuit over exclusive food rights hindered the Otways from refinancing their mortgage.

“It was certainly a contributing factor in our bankruptcy,” Otway declared.

But Kushnir strongly disagreed.

“Foxface filed suit against Lorcan and the bar [William Barnacle Tavern] in March 2021,” he said. “This was almost six months before anyone but him had any idea he was in default on his mortgage, that Maverick had purchased it, or that he was attempting to refinance the loan. Since we are not prophets, it’s downright silly to claim we were trying to prevent him from refinancing.”

Kushnir said his lawsuit only seeks damages of a “few hundred thousand [dollars]” — which he deemed relatively small, in the overall scheme of the Theatre 80 financial picture — and stressed that the litigation and the building’s bankruptcy situation were not connected.

As for the long term, Otway has been trying to get a new job, but it’s been a humbling experience. He started applying one year ago, preparing for the worst-case outcome with Theatre 80.

“At this point, I can’t see anything on the horizon other than homelessness and being out of work,” he lamented. “I’ve applied to 30 museums, mainly craft and maritime museums. I haven’t got a single call back because of my age. I’m five years beyond the retirement age — though I’m relatively healthy and above average health for my age.”

In addition to running Theatre 80, Lorcan has worked as a human-rights attorney, specializing in Native American land rights, which he said does not pay much. Genie is a lawyer, too, though, like Lorcan, works in an area that is not particularly lucrative.

Lorcan also used to be a boatbuilder, cobbling together curracks, a traditional Irish ocean fishing rowboat.

He also plays a wide assortment of instruments, including the aforementioned Uilleann pipes, plus the harp, guitar, bodhrán (an Irish tambourine sans the jingles) and the whistle flute.

He was a combat photographer, as he described it, in Northern Island “during the height of The Troubles.”

“I can count to 100 in Pictish,” he offered, promptly rattling off a bunch of numbers in a strange, elven-like tongue.

Asked what he’d ideally like to be doing, he said, “What I always do — to build and run a theater and build and run taverns.”

After being evicted on April 5, the Otways haven’t been allowed back in the Theatre 80 building. Lorcan noted that many of their possessions are still inside there, including his legal papers for his Native American cases — which contain sensitive information — and even his parents’ ashes. Yet, the trustee adamantly refuses to let them back inside.

“How could you not let someone retrieve their parents’ ashes?” he asked, incredulously.

At the end of the day, Lorcan blames the COVID lockdown — and government’s failure to do more to help out impacted theaters — for their losing Theater 80 St. Mark’s and for their lives and future security being thrown upside down.

“I’m a refugee from a failed state program,” he said. “I did what I was asked to do, and then I was destroyed by the government.”

On top of everything, the Otways’ separation from their cat, Pyewackett, is impacting their relationship — at least from the cat’s point of view. Lorcan has visited her at least once at the home of the East Village friend who is temporarily hosting her.

“She’s furious at me,” Lorcan said of the feline. “She feels I’ve abandoned her.”

A GoFundMe that was hoped to raise $8.8 million to help save the building from being auctioned is still active. Around $9,400 has been raised.

Correction: An earlier version of this article said the second bidder in the auction for the Theatre 80 property was the Canadian actor Mark O’Brien, whom Lorcan Otway noted had previously participated in the Naked Angel original play-reading series at the East Village theater. However, Ori Kushnir, the winning bidder, said he subsequently checked the auction papers, and the e-mail address corresponded to a luxury developer who is also named Mark O’Brien of Build Me a Brownstone. However, that O’Brien, as it turns out, did have a connection to Theatre 80 as an actor, too, as a side interest.