December 28, 2007
Cedar Tavern is "History" Says Condo Developer
The Cedar Tavern has been closed for over a year now, and someday soon New Yorkers will finally get more of what they so desperately need: more condo units priced at $1.7 million and up! The famous tavern on University Place, long associated with the drunken hi-jinks of notables like Jackson Pollock and Jack Kerouac, shut down in December 2006 for “renovations” and never reopened. Promises to come back as part of the nine-story condo have gone unfulfilled; owner Michael Diliberto told The Real Deal:
“Cedar is past. Cedar is history. It means something to me. It doesn't mean something to the next generation." Diliberto and his late older brother Joe initially envisioned condos on top of the Cedar Tavern, but plans to reopen the pub were abandoned when Joe was diagnosed with fatal cancer and died two months ago. The bar closed shortly afterwards, on the day after Thanksgiving 2006.
Diliberto says running the bar is a “difficult business” and doesn’t want to do it without his brother. So while there will be retail space on the ground floor, it won’t be the Cedar Tavern, which opened at its final location in 1963. (Its previous address at 24 University Place, more popular among the boldfaced names, was opened by Diliberto's father and uncle in the 1950s.)
In the next couple months Diliberto will seek approval from the attorney general's office to give the condo project a test-run on the market. If all goes well, plans will be submitted for approval to the state a few months later. And according to Diliberto, the condo’s name will not reference the Cedar Tavern in any way.
Photograph of the Cedar Tavern before the condo construction by WallyG
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Keep on suckin NYC!
This is an unbelievably high degree of grade A bullshit. Hell hath no fury if the condo powers gut Minetta's.
“Cedar is past. Cedar is history. It means something to me. It doesn't mean something to the next generation."
Has this guy been drinking Kerouac's urine out the ashtray? This is an unbelievably high degree of grade A bullshit.
When will this market implode? Soon, these millionaires will have only two places to visit each day: their offices and their million dollar condos. Oh, and Whole Foods. Three places, I guess.
Let's be honest: it is hard to run a bar, and why run a bar when you can have the fast cash getaway of condo building instead? I can understand the owner's position on that level, but please, let's not pretend that the Cedar doesn't mean anything anymore to anyone, and that's why he's closing. It's just not true, and it's demeaning to all the wonderful people who spent a good deal of time and money in the bar, which not incidentally, fueled his condo-building in the first place.
Some years, the Cedar seemed like my second home, and it will be sorely missed.
Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!
running a bar may be hard but the cash is good.
unless you're running it like a kitchen nightmare.
This really is sad. Sure, their are a billion bars in NYC, but Cedar had fantastic food, a nice beer selection and was a truly gorgeous interior space. The bar itself was very beautiful, as was the glass and cabinetry behind the bar. When I worked around Union Square, I ate lunch at Cedar a few times a nonth, and got drunk in the upstairs as often as I could. What a shame that another great NYC space will be made into more tacky condos. RIP Cedar, you will be missed.
New York was so much better in the late 50's.
Is there some city agency I can write to and protest all this crap? Aren't there enough $2 million condos out there already?
"Soon, these millionaires will have only two places to visit each day: their offices and their million dollar condos. Oh, and Whole Foods. Three places, I guess."
Ummm, I think that "soon" is now.
Chumley's: meet your future.
His brother died of cancer.
They ran it together.
It will not be the same without his brother.
What would you do? Donate the building an air rights to a gothamist commentator to keep the bar alive?