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Meatpacking East? Clubs Eyeing First Avenue And Houston
By
Garth Johnston
Published Aug 9, 2012
Modified Aug 9, 2012
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Aug 9, 2012
Modified Aug 9, 2012
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If you think the East Village is bad on weekend nights now, it could be about to get a whole lot worse. Apparently with Lucky Cheng's moving from First Avenue and the lightning fast transformation/yuppification of the Bowery, well, "The East Village is ripe for the picking right now." At least according to Ariel Palitz, who’s selling Sutra Lounge after nine years. "There’s an opportunity to change the culture and the makeup of the neighborhood from the underground nightlife experience to a high-end clientele." Really? The East Village nightlife has been "underground" for the past decade?
Sadly it isn't just Palitz who believes the area is about to go BOOM. According to the Daily News, "In recent weeks, major nightclub operators associated with the Meatpacking District, SoHo and West Chelsea have been sniffing around the E. Houston corridor from the Bowery to Avenue A, where the weathered and fully licensed lower First Ave. properties Sutra Lounge and Lucky Cheng’s are prized commodities." People sniffing include operators from Pink Elephant, Greenhouse, Hudson Terrace, Acme, 1Oak and Electric Room. First Starbucks on First and Third (which doesn't look like it is doing great, btw) and now this?
And don't forget that nearby Nice Guy Eddie's is now being converted into something else from the owner of chic lounges Ella and Gallery Bar. "It’s a good location for nightlife, because the residents for the most part are a younger age group," a "nightlife real estate specialist" tells the tabloid—completely forgetting about the fact that a) the local Community Board's SLA committee is pretty actively not a fan of nightlife at this point (never forget the resolution areas) and b) that just around the corner from Cheng's and Sutra is the Village View residential tower which still, from what we can tell, houses many an old time neighborhood resident. Not that either will be able to do much to stop fancier clubs from coming in as both locations are already liquor licensed. And so it goes.
Tagged
cb3
clubs
community board 3
east village
first avenue
houston street
lucky chengs
meatpacking district
sla
village view
Garth Johnston
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