Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The Cooper Square Hotel gets the OK to be Balazsed

As we noted, hotelier Andre Balazs is taking over the troubled Cooper Square Hotel. And last night, Balazs was at the CB3/SLA meeting to seek a transfer of the Coop's liquor license to his Standard chain.

A shame we missed it. Heard it was some good theater. Per Jetty-Jane Connor's report at Eater, one resident in favor of the transfer said, "We have the option to choose between badly managed nightlife or well managed nightlife, and I firmly believe having an upscale, well-managed establishment will be an improvement to this neighborhood."

The CB3/SLA committee didn't seem to mind that any this may very well turn into the Meatpacking District East. (Or maybe it already has.) The transfer received the committee's unanimous approval.

Here's DNAinfo's recap from the meeting.

[Balazs image via]

8 comments:

Laura Goggin Photography said...

Over on Gothamist, he's quoted as saying, "I’ve lived in this neighborhood, in SoHo specifically, for 30 years." Would that be Upper East Soho?

Anonymous said...

yeah, and and there was also this guy who said that he was the editor for paper maazine and that he lives on tsp for 30 years too and that he supports this and thinks that the neighborhood is on an upswing?

anybody there remember this comment?

Anonymous said...

So wait, first we lived in the lower eastside, then the east village, now we all live in soho?
While this may have been entertaining, the best part of the evening was the owner of Diablo calling everyone a liar again. He continues to claim he runs a family-friendly mexican restaurant. Has anyone ever seen a family in this place? The hawk can hear the music from this place in TSP.

Uncle Waltie said...

I totally believe in well-managed, upscale establishments that improve my neighborhood. For the very same reasons that I get flypaper.

Anonymous said...

Paper magazine? Why is everybody such an a-hole.

Luxury housing and upscale restaurants are the most damaging to the neighborhood.

AC said...

WHat bullshit. This will become a place that the majority of residents won't want to go to, and a place that we won't even be able to access. Their bars will have door policies that only locals who are magazine publishers will be able to gain admittance to.

Anonymous said...

I don't know what's worse on that block Diablo Royale or Westville. Major douche at both of these places. They both take over the whole sidewalk too, and their brunch scene hosts a pathetic crowd.

Jill said...

The entire time they were giving their presentation there were 2 people taking photos nonstop in a paparazzi kind of way. I would estimate that between the 2 of them they got 450 photos of Andre Balasz standing in the senior center. Admittedly, he is good looking and had on really nice pants, if you know what I mean.