The Hole Gallery rent case quietly dropped after landlord alleged $60,000 owed
A landlord dropped a nonpayment case over The Hole’s Bowery space, but a separate Tribeca rent case remains active.
Law and Crime
A New York landlord has dropped a rent case against The Hole Gallery after previously alleging it owed more than $60,000 for its longtime Bowery space.
Bremen House, the landlord for The Hole’s ground-floor storefront at 312 Bowery, discontinued the rent case in a notice dated April 30 and filed May 4 in New York Civil Court. The notice ended the case without prejudice, allowing the landlord to bring a similar claim again.
The document does not explain why the case was dropped or say whether the parties reached an agreement.
Paid subscribers can read the court documents.
Documents: The Hole gallery Bowery and Tribeca rent cases
Court records from two New York Civil Court rent cases involving entities tied to The Hole Gallery.
Adam Schrader
The case was filed in September as a nonpayment proceeding. Bremen House alleged The Hole entered a written lease in April 2021 for a term from May 1, 2021, through January 1, 2031. The petition said the gallery’s monthly base rent was $22,688.85, plus other charges under the lease.
The landlord initially demanded $87,857.49 in rent and other charges through August 31, 2025, according to a rent demand attached to the court petition. The petition said The Hole later paid $50,677.70 but alleged new rent accrued after the demand, leaving $60,168.64 still owed when the case was filed.
Bremen House asked the court for possession of the Bowery space, as well as unpaid rent, interest, attorney’s fees and costs.
A separate rent case tied to The Hole’s Tribeca location at 86 Walker Street remains active.
In that case, Walker Broadway alleged The Hole owed $124,110.17, including rent from early 2025 and real estate tax charges from 2023, 2024 and 2025. It filed the case on August 15 in New York Civil Court and sought possession of the ground-floor store and basement, along with the unpaid amount, interest and costs.
A July 18 notice attached to that petition said The Hole owed a January 2025 balance of $2,788.09, monthly rent from February through July 2025 and real estate tax charges of $16,513.54 for 2023, $18,181.43 for 2024 and $18,163.78 for 2025. The notice said the monthly base rent was $11,475.23.
The Bowery rent case arose amid broader scrutiny of The Hole’s finances.
In April, The Art Newspaper reported that The Hole had closed its Los Angeles space after struggling to pay bills and artists.
“We are current with Bowery rent and paying off arrears for the Tribeca space, slowly but surely,” The Hole founder Kathy Grayson told The Art Newspaper.
Grayson said sales had slowed after two unusually strong years.
“I’ve been here for 15 years, and after two extra-successful years, sales were down significantly starting at the end of 2023. For everyone in our zone, not just for us,” she said. “I’m recalibrating things here to focus on New York and getting everything stabilized again. The up can often be as destabilizing as the down.”
The Hole’s West Hollywood space permanently closed after its final exhibition came down in September 2025.
The Art Newspaper also reported that artists and former employees described late payments to artists and workers, while Grayson said the gallery had cut expenses, reduced staff, limited travel and stopped participating in most art fairs.
“In 2024, I tried to take strong steps to reduce expenses, this is when we first tried to get out of our LA lease,” Grayson told The Art Newspaper. She added that the gallery “stopped doing all art fairs besides a couple core ones,” reduced exhibition costs and cut travel and hospitality “to near zero.”
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