Last Call for Mars Bar, Will Be Demolished for New Housing

Before and after. (Photo via BitchcakesNY's Flickr, rendering BFC Partners via Curbed.)

Last night the Community Board 3 housing committee voted to approve a plan to demolish a couple of buildings on Second Avenue and Houston, replacing them with a mix of affordable and market-rate housing. Current tenants would be sold the new units for $1, and the Local reports that the units could never be resold at market rates. Good stuff! But the infamous dive Mars Bar is located on the ground floor of 1st Street and Second Avenue. When news of the development broke Tuesday, the bar's owner downplayed the potential change, speculating the bar would reopen good as new after two years. But as Curbed reports today, "rumors of Mars Bar's demise have been greatly underestimated."

Here's a rendering of what the building will look like, and it looks like the new Mars Bar would be in a slick, glass-fronted establishment. Owner Hank Penza is happy that he'll have three or four times the amount of space, but let's face it, there's no way the accumulated grunge and transgressive ambiance that defines Mars Bar can be recreated. It looks like Penza is eager to enter the Hard Rock Cafe phase of life, and we imagine they'll be plenty of T-shirts and coffee mugs for sale in the gift shop.

The full Community Board will vote on the end of the month, but it doesn't seem like there's any reason why this won't win approval, and who's going to rally in protest against affordable housing to "save" a bar the owner doesn't even want "saved"?

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By John Del Signore in Food on December 9, 2010 11:10 AM

Comments [rss]

randomtransplant

NOOOOO where will I take out of towners when I'm too lazy to find them a punk show?

Where will I stop in for a warm up shot or a cool off beer when I'm passing down Christye to the bridge? Not that I did, but it was nice to know I COULD....

Where else will people from every single walk of life go so the gutter punks have a steady supply of non-gutter punks to insult? I thought their habitat was protected as endangered!

Spirit of 76

Judging from the picture, it's not an improvement. They're just replacing a ratty, old building with yet another soulless Postmodern box. Whatever happened to good architecture? Seems all we get nowadays are bland, featureless boxes like this or hideous, pretentious designs from people like Gehry.

Polite New Yorker

Once I went in there and saw a friend and chatted with him briefly. When I told him I was going to move to some vacant seats at the bar and have a drink, he advised me against sitting there, saying some homeless guy had just pissed on some of the bar stools. I haven't been there in a while, but it's a great bar and is far superior to whatever soulless overpriced box of ugliness takes it place.

Professor Von Nostren

There will be 48 market rate apts and 12 low-income. There are currently 9 low-income residents who will get new apts, so that just leaves 3 new low-income openings. The way they're selling this project as "affordable housing" is disgusting.

I predict this will go the way of CBGBs: months of goodbyes followed by a Las Vegas version of Mars, followed by ironic $80 Mars Bar t-shirts.