Grand Prospect Hall - 2021 - Michael Roberto (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Surprising no one, Grand Prospect Hall is indeed being replaced by condos
According to permits filed with the city, the place where dreams once came true is being redeveloped into five-floor residential space
The grand finale of Grand Prospect Hall is what everyone expected and (almost) nobody wanted: The former event venue and shrine to kitsch is being destroyed to make way for high-end housing.
According to permits filed with the city, the place where dreams once came true is being turned into a five-story residential building with 147 residences and 180 parking spaces. Property blog New York YIMBY reported that by its calculations, the new building are “likely condos based on the average unit scope of 955 square feet.”
An opening date hasn’t been revealed, but demolition of the 119-year-old building has already begun.
Grand Prospect Hall, owned by Alice and Michael Halikas for more than four decades, was sold in July 2021 for $22.5 million to Angelo Rigas, an electrical contractor, as part of a larger $30 million dollar deal with 11 other parcels, Brooklyn Magazine previously reported.
The Halikas pair first bought the banquet hall in 1981 and became local favorites through their cheesy and over the top commercials which aired for decades across New York City and were famously parodied on “Saturday Night Live.” The couple, who even appeared on the “The Tonight Show” in 2019, booked hundreds of events each year for decades.
Alice Halikas completed the $30 million dollar sale after her husband Michael passed away from coronavirus complications in May of 2020 at 82. A petition signed by more than 40,000 people last summer to stop the demolition by making it a landmark failed, thus dashing the dreams of its neighbors.
At least we’ll always have this commercial.
