up their venue to cheap, high-volume functions. The flyers upset some neighbors, who viewed it as a threat, while Michael Halkias described it as an economic necessity. The request for a zoning exception was not approved. The hall was primarily an event space, hosting weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, corporate events and high-school proms. The Halkiases rented the building as a filming location for films, TV shows, and commercials including The Cotton Club, Prizzi’s Honor, The Royal Tenenbaums, Gossip Girl, and season three of Twin Peaks. It has also hosted events such as Flame Con, an LGBTQ comic book convention, and the rock band Arcade Fire held an Everything Now album release concert there for 1,500 fans. Sale to Rigas Business suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Grand Prospect Hall closed in March 2020. Two months later, on May 6, Michael Halkias died at the age of 82 due to complications from COVID-19. In June 2020, the building was sold, along with eleven other adjacent properties, to contractor Angelo Rigas for $30 million. The interior was largely auctioned off before the sale was announced, with some of the decorations and fixtures sold to other local businesses and antiques sellers. On August 19, 2021, the Brooklyn Paper reported that Rigas, through Gowanus Cubes LLC, had filed permits to demolish the properties, including Grand Prospect Hall. Local activists began a petition to try to save the building from demolition and asked the LPC to hold hearings for landmark status. The petition gained 40,000 supporters, including city councilman Brad Lander, who described it as "a site of many memories and melodies for generations of Brooklynites". A judge issued an injunction to halt demolition in early September 2021, since a demolished building could not be considered for landmark status. However, the LPC refused to hold a hearing to consider the building for landmark status, since the exterior had been too extensively modified from its original design. Among the LPC's reasons for denying the request were that the fourth-floor pediment had been removed, the frieze above ground level had been modified, and the entrance portico had been enclosed. Much of the interior had also been demolished already. The demolition permits were approved in November 2021, though at that time there was not a concrete timeline for it to move forward. Brooklyn Magazine'' reported in February 2022 that it would be replaced with a five-story residential