16 Handles owner pays $4.5M to Emigrant Bank for retail in East Village, plans froyo location

Neil Hershman, who owns 16 Handles franchise and additionally operates locations, through the entity Fillmore East Realty LLC paid $4.5 million to Emigrant Bank through the entity Emigrant Bancorp, Inc. for the retail building (O5) at 105 Second Avenue in East Village, Manhattan. The expected use is owner-occupied. Hershman filed New York City Department of Buildings alteration plans under job M01408251, with plans for, “interior demo of existing non-bearing partitions & finishes throughout building & interior renovation in existng 1st floor commercial space for proposed frozen yogurt shop. plumbing work to be filed subsequently.”

This location was once the home to rock promoter Bill Graham’s venue Fillmore East, and decades before that was a Yiddish theater.
The deal closed on May 28, 2026 and was recorded on June 18, 2026. The property has 9,600 square feet of built space for a total buildable of 9,600 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $468 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The signatory for Emigrant Bank was Kimberly R. Romano. The signatory for Neil Hershman was Neil Hershman. The contract date was March 5, 2026. Emigrant Bank bought the property from Hudson Companies through William Fowler’s signature in 1995 for $625,000.

Prior sales, articles and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Neil Hershman had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Emigrant Bank had not purchased any other properties and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $135 million over the same time period. The 9,600-square-foot property generated revenue of $287,165 or $30 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The retail building in East Village has 9,600 square feet of built space for a total buildable of 9,600 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 24 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,400 square feet. The zoning is R7A which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is in the East Village / Lower East Side Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.8 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In East Village, The bulk, or 44 percent of the 15.5 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space. In sales, East Village has 1.6 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $584.9 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 19th highest in Manhattan. For development, East Village has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 568,562 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 4 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of eight of the 13 commercial properties representing 379,186 square feet of the 462,807 square feet. The largest owner is City Of New York , followed by Abro Management and then Jakobson Properties .
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 61 percent of the 462,807 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space.

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