Storied St. Mark’s Hotel adding six floors

Pappas family plans to more than double height of infamous former flophouse

The St. Mark's Hotel (Photo: Beyond My Ken)
The St. Mark's Hotel (Photo: Beyond My Ken)

One of the city’s grittiest hotels — once a notorious haven for unsavory clientele — is expanding.

The St. Mark’s Hotel, an East Village landmark at the corner of Third Avenue and St. Mark’s Place, plans to expand to eight floors from two, according to building plans filed with the city.

The Pappas family, which owns the famous hotel, filed plans to build a 10-story mixed-use building on the hotel’s lot at 2 St. Mark’s Place.

The hotel – notoriously one of the neighborhood’s sleaziest flophouses before gentrification hit – currently has 64 rooms with rates starting at $118.95. Now more of a hostel, the hotel owed its earlier reputation to being a refuge for drug addicts and prostitutes, and more than one suspect fleeing police.

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Calls to members of the Pappas family weren’t immediately returned, but the plans underscore changes to the neighborhood. The property, at the corner of Third Avenue and St. Mark’s Place, is across the street from developer Edward Minskoff’s 12-story office tower at 51 Astor Place.

The St. Mark’s Hotel currently occupies floors two through four of 2 St. Mark’s Place, with retail on the first floor. The structure measures 20,814 square feet but it has 37,296 buildable square feet, according to PropertyShark.

According to the building plans, the expanded building would also have retail on the ground floor, in addition to a medical office and other commercial space in the cellar. The hotel would occupy floors two through 10.