No grand Finale for neighbors
THE BATTLE FOR THE BOWERY has gotten nasty.
On March 1, residents of 199 Bowery filed papers in Manhattan Supreme Court hoping to revoke the liquor license of red-hot restaurant The General, along with Finale, the club next door in the building. Residents claimed that owners said they were opening a restaurant at 199 Bowery but instead delivered an eatery with a raging nightclub attached.
Confidenti@l has learned the lawsuit came after a lot of back-and-forth maneuvers that included a proposed cash settlement from the club’s owners to residents, who instead wanted the group to buy them out of their pricey condos.
EMM Group opened the controversial restaurant, nightclub and basement jazz club in November in a space that traditionally housed nightclubs and has spent more than $1 million on soundproofing. But in mid-March, Community Board 3’s advisory committee to the State Liquor Authority opposed EMM Group’s request to allow the existing operating licenses for the restaurant and jazz club to cover Finale (r.). The case remains open.
“The owners said they were going to do one thing, and they did something completely different,” said Richard Halpern, president of the condo board at 199 Bowery.
Robert Schwob, who owns one of the condos at 199 Bowery, said he and his 26-year-old daughter, a composer, had to move out because of the noise from Finale.
“Our place is uninhabitable; we have no way of living in it,” said Schwob. He said that prior to a recent community board meeting, EMM Group sent an email offering to pay the condo board $2,500 a month for the duration of the lease to settle the matter. The board declined.
An attorney for EMM denies baitand-switch claims.
“There are a couple of residents there who saw a couple of deeppocketed owners,” said Robert
Bookman, who is also general counsel for the New York City Hospitality Alliance, a business lobbying group. “They want their apartments bought out for a ridiculous amount of money.”
Other residents of 199 Bowery, however, say EMM has had a positive influence on this once-shady strip. “If anything, the sound is more insulated than it was before,” said one longtime lower East Side resident, who asked to remain anonymous. “You also have a restaurant component that wasn’t there before. These places are improving the community and the Bowery.”
A spokesman for EMM had no comment.