Sunshine Hotel SRO departure (mid-2000s)
Owners of the Sunshine Hotel, one of the Bowery's last single-room-occupancy hotels, stopped taking new residents and offered buyouts to clear the building for redevelopment. Occupancy fell from roughly 250-300 people to 44.
Remaining residents were gradually bought out or moved on while the owners waited to redevelop.
Luxury development and the New Museum's arrival next door completed the Bowery's shift from cheap lodging to upscale hospitality.
It frames today's food-and-beverage closure as another step in the Bowery's long transformation.
