C. sent the picture above with a hopeful note: “Jin Market activity! Lights inside on!”

And sure enough, there are a bunch of permits issued this summer by the Department of Buildings. (A reader had sent a note recently saying the ones posted outside were expired, so it seems they have not updated those.) There’s a permit to provide HVAC and kitchen exhaust for the interior renovation of a supermarket among others.

Jin Market at 111 Hudson has been closed since 2022; not long after, a note was passed to me that it was scheduled to be an H Mart.

I have never been able to confirm directly with the company — and a friend of a friend even called them in Korean. Still, it was solid tip I got back in 2023 and James Bogardus then did a deep dive on the Department of Finance records on the sale and learned the deed included the same address and suite number as “Hana Mart Tribeca Corp” as well as the same last name of the owner of H Mart. See James’ brilliant connecting of the dots from 2024 below.

Let’s hope they are back on the path to opening. Also NB: they are in the Tribeca West Historic District, so care will have to be taken with the storefront.

FROM JAMES BOGARDUS:
The managing member of HK Development:
* has the same last name as the owner of H Mart
* is listed on the deed with the same address and suite number as “Hana Mart Tribeca Corp.”
* was listed with a New York, NY address as an officer of Gmart Westminster Corporation, doing business as H Mart, 5036 West 92nd Avenue, Westminster, CO” in a 2014 Notice of Public Hearing for a retail liquor license
* is listed as a contact for “Hana Mart Columbia Corp. d/b/a Han Ah Reum Supermarket, 2828 Broadway”
* owns a home in Englewood Cliffs with Kingston Shih, quoted as an H Mart employee in this story: https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2020/03/20/asian-american-grocery-stores-not-short-on-supplies–just-customers
* was deposed in a 2002 federal labor lawsuit as “the daughter of defendant Kwon” and “comptroller and currently as its director of management” where one of the named defendants was
“Han Ah Reum Inc.” — The Times article states, “Mr. Kwon’s first store still stands in Woodside, with a blue awning that bears H Mart’s original name, Han Ah Reum. This is commonly translated from Korean as “an armful,” but has a poetic nuance, invoking warmth and care, as in an embrace.”