As previously reported, Manhattan Pawffice, a sibling to Brooklyn Pawffice out in Williamsburg, opened in the lower level last fall.
We spent a lot of time in both retail spaces in years past. Sounds closed upstairs in October 2015 after 36 years in business. This was the last record shop on St. Mark's Place.
And downstairs, the Grassroots Tavern closed following New Year's Eve 2017 after 42 years in service.
In January 2016, Klosed Properties bought the landmarked 20 St. Mark's Place from Jim Stratton, who was also the majority owner of the Grassroots. At that time, a source said that the bar had a lease for the next five years, with an option after that for renewal. According to public records, Klosed Properties paid about $5.6 million for the building.
Stratton told Bedford + Bowery that the rent had just become too high. "We were not forced out by any means, it would just have required a radical change for the business and the way we operate. We basically decided we had to throw in the towel." (Several GR regulars wondered why Stratton, as the seller of the building, didn't negotiate a favorable lease for his bar.)
In the past six years, at least two potential tenants were going to take space here, including this pub concept that signed a lease, but nothing materialized until last fall.
No. 20, the Daniel LeRoy House, was built in 1832. It received landmark status in 1971 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Past lives of the subterranean space that the Grassroots had included a theater saloon called Paul Falk's Tivoli Garden in the 1870s... in the 1930s, the Hungarian Cafe and Restaurant resided here before becoming a temperance saloon called the Growler, per Daytonian in Manhattan.
Top photo by Steven
I wish both businesses well but this is so sad, considering the history of what was there before.
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