Judge says N.Y. punk landmark can't be evicted

[Roughneck]

Judge says N.Y. punk landmark CBGB's can't be evicted
NEW YORK (AP) — A civil court judge ruled Wednesday that the landmark punk club CBGB's can't be evicted from its Bowery location, saying it shouldn't be punished for not noticing it owed its landlord money.
The ruling was a victory for the club where the groups like the Ramones and Blondie created the punk scene, but CBGB's future is still uncertain.

Its lease with the Bowery Residents' Committee expires on Aug. 31, and a renewal remains up in the air.

The executive director of the Bowery Residents' Committee, Muzzy Rosenblatt, said he had not seen the ruling so he could not comment on it.

"All we're looking for is a responsible tenant," he said of his group, which provides shelter for homeless people in the building that houses the club.

The dispute involved $91,000 in rent increases that the club said it did not pay for four years because of a bookkeeping mix-up. CBGB's said it wasn't billed for the increases, but Rosenblatt said the increases were clearly stated in the lease. The rent is $19,000 a month.

In her ruling, Judge Joan Kenney praised the club's impact on the neighborhood, which she said was plagued by "destitution, degradation and substance abuse" when the club opened in 1973.

"CBGB has proven itself worthy of being recognized as a landmark — a rare achievement for any commercial tenant in the ever diverse and competitive real estate market of New York City," she wrote in the ruling, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press by the Save CBGB's Coalition.

"It would be unconscionable for this court to allow petitioner to proceed with its intent to evict CBGB ... because it failed to notice that monies were outstanding for approximately four years," the judge wrote.

As part of its proposal for a new lease, CBGB's has said it would find a third-party guarantor and would raise money for the committee every year with benefit concerts.

[LS]

Yeah big deal so they can't be evicted- the lease is still up at the end of the month and we all know what happened to the Bottom Line...

[snizz]

littlesister said:

Yeah big deal so they can't be evicted- the lease is still up at the end of the month and we all know what happened to the Bottom Line...

And so it goes
Here it is hot off the press No big surprise, another greedy, spiteful SOB

Landlord Says Lease For CBGB's Won't Be Renewed

(AP)- As several hundred enthusiastic supporters rallied in Washington Square Park to keep CBGB's open, the landlord of the venerable punk club announced Wednesday that the lease on the 32-year-old landmark will not be renewed.

The Bowery Residents' Committee, landlord of the building on the Bowery, "believes it is in the best interest of our clients — the homeless and neediest New Yorkers — to sever this relationship," BRC executive director Muzzy Rosenblatt said.

The existing lease was to expire at midnight Wednesday, August 31. The statement from Rosenblatt called for CBGB's to "vacate the premises both voluntarily and expeditiously" — a scenario that appeared unlikely, given the promises of Little Steven Van Zandt and others to wage a battle to the end on behalf of the bar that launched punk rock.

"We're not going without a fight," said Van Zandt, who was joined at the rally by "Sopranos" co-stars Tony Sirico and Joe Pantoliano. "If the eviction proceedings start tomorrow, which I hope it doesn't, we'll fight it in the courts."

The rally was aimed at putting public pressure on Rosenblatt. But while Gavin Rossdale was leading his new band, Institute, through a rollicking version of "Machinehead," the decision on booting the club had already been made.

Even the hardy CBGB supporters at the rally, where Public Enemy and Blondie were also scheduled to perform, seemed resigned to the club's demise.

"It doesn't look hopeful," said Lucky Pierre, 26, a New York University student. "But we'll keep the fires burning until the last minute."

An increasingly frustrated Van Zandt blasted Rosenblatt for the inability to reach a new agreement. The E Street Band guitarist, "Sopranos" star and radio show host entered the negotiations about six weeks ago.

The club's owner, Hilly Kristal, also was not backing down.

"We intend to stay," he declared. "This is not a eulogy; there's no reason why we shouldn't come to an understanding."

It was Kristal who launched the club in December 1973, creating a space that eventually spawned bands like the Ramones, Blondie and the Talking Heads. The club eventually gained an international reputation as the birthplace of punk.

Some of the club's supporters at the rally echoed '70s fashion statements, sporting green hair, safety pin earrings and black Ramones T-shirts. Among them was 45-year-old Rochelle Goldman, who was wearing a "Save CBGB" T-shirt complemented by assorted CBGB's wristbands dangling from both arms.

"People say it's a museum, but I'm still going there," she declared. "I'm an old punk."

Rosenblatt's group holds a 45-year lease on the building, where the agency houses 250 homeless people above the club. CBGB is its lone commercial tenant; their rent feud dates back five years, when the committee went to court to collect more than $300,000 in back rent from the club.

The current rent is $19,000 a month, although that figure was expected to at least double under any new lease. The club's landlord-tenant woes were reminiscent of the fight over The Bottom Line, the vintage Greenwich Village club that closed in December 2003.

CBGB won a legal decision earlier this month when a Manhattan civil court judge ruled that the club couldn't be evicted for a bookkeeping mistake that left Kristal about $100,000 behind in his rent.

Not even the intervention of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who offered to mediate the dispute, could resolve the problem. Bloomberg said he hoped to find CBGB's a new location in the city.