Per the film's introduction at Capital:
Bleecker Bob’s will stay open until the landlord has found a new tenant. When it goes, it will take with it a huge part of the history of the Village. And it looks unlikely to find a new place to open up.
You can watch the documentary here.
As we noted back in March, rent on the East Third Street storefront is $17,000.
Previously on EV Grieve:
[UPDATED] Let's help Bleecker Bob's find space in the East Village
[Image from March via Dave on 7th]
Same old story all over town. Pete's Tavern has been in business at it's current Irving Place location since the 1860s and are apparently about to get the boot despite having some 8+ years on their lease.
ReplyDeleteIt's way past time for the City Council to take a look at ways to maintain retail diversity in NYC neighborhoods. As I've said multiple times before, San Fransisco already has a successful approach in place.
@ Ken
ReplyDeleteWhoa. I missed that news about Pete's. Just found an article from Friday, July 6 via The Real Deal. Was in holiday mode and never saw it...
Hey EV. A shocker, right? Pete's manages to run a successful business on Irving place for 140+ years but can't survive the out-of-control NYC real estate market of the 2010's. I know there have been hearings about this, but WTF are the state and the City Council doing? The short term tax benefits come at the expense of long term health of the city.
ReplyDeleteHoly shit, Pete's Tavern may lose its lease? Irving is my favorite block in the whole fucking city. I feel like I'm losing my mind.
ReplyDeleteSomeone had told me about Pete's Tavern and I was hoping it was just a nasty rumor. Things are getting out of control.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I can't get the link to the Bleecker Bob's to open up, anyone else having a problem with it?
ReplyDeleteHmm, I can't get it to open now either Marty....
ReplyDeleteMaybe they should throw some street concerts like in Empire Records? Surely there are enough celebrities living in the area to make this happen. Come on, rich people, help us out.
ReplyDeleteBeloved shops/restaurants/bars/etc. closing when the owners have decided to retire is sad enough. But when these great businesses would rather stay in business but can no longer afford to do so, it is a damn shame.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the Bloomberg regime is not interested in protecting the little guy and instead practically fall over themselves to accommodate big money developers and large chain corporations because they fit into the NYC 2.0 vision better. More palatable to tourists and the new breed of temporary resident.
I moved upstate 15 years ago to the Albany area for family reasons. When I took a walk through the Lower East Side (excuse me, East Village or whatever the new hip name is) I saw a neighborhood that looked nothing like the one I lived in. Safer and cleaner is good, but things have gone too far. What started as cleaning up the city has evolved into replacing it with a generic bland landscape in too many areas. IHOP on St. Marks? For shame.