CBGB! Former Underground Club Space Hits the Market
By Laura Kusisto April 12, 2011 3:56 pm
reprints
We suspect this news would give Patti Smith the CBGBs.
The former CBGB Gallery space at 313 Bowery is on the market. The former den of the Ramones and Blondie was only a couple of years ago rescued from a perilous conversion into a bank branch by the Morrison Hotel Gallery. With its recent Lynn Goldsmith exhibit of Dylan and Springstein’s scowling mugs, the gallery has helped it keep some of its edge. (The space next door, at 315, also occupied by the club, has been converted to a John Varvatos restaurant).
But Cushman & Wakefield has been retained by the Max’s Kansas City Company to sublease the space, to the dismay of boomers everywhere. “We’re only entertaining offers from tenants, whether they are a restaurant or traditional retailer, that can appreciate the history of the space and the Bowery,” said Steven Soutendijk, who along with Chris Schwart is leasing the space. He added that CBGB’s nostalgia is “clear and present with some of the original wear and tear that can be seen within the physical features of the space, and the preservation of one of the most famous rock and roll venues stands true to form.”
But with the Bowery becoming an increasingly chi-chi venue for restaurants and upscale clothing stores, we’ll just have to wait and see how long the bathroom graffiti will survive.
lkusisto@observer.com
