Remember that rumor that Big Nick’s Burger & Pizza Joint was going to become a bank? Looks like it was wrong.
Big Nick’s is currently being gutted, a depressing spectacle playing out on Broadway between 76th and 77th streets. And it sounds like the two businesses next to it will be forced to close soon too.
Our columnist Harriet was chatting with an executive from the Hotel Belleclaire, which is the landlord for the three businesses at the southwest corner of Broadway and 77th street (Big Nick’s, News Inc. and Bra Smyth).
“Spoke Friday afternoon with a gentleman who identified himself as director or revenue at Hotel Belleclaire . Said he had only been with the hotel for a year and was very excited by its plans. He was holding a blueprint and talking with another man when I interrupted and asked about the plans. The big nicks storefront will not be rented out. The magazine store and the lingerie store will close “shortly”. (He did not have an exact date there). The hotel will close its side street entrance and build an entrance on Broadway, taking up the entire Broadway front. The main reason is that they want a restaurant with a liquor license on the second floor. They cannot get a liquor license as long as their main entrance faces a church (Collegiate).”
We emailed the general manager of the hotel for comment, but never heard back.
The news is not that surprising, given that the Belleclaire recently had a big renovation and that hotel bars are hot amenities: several hotels in the area have been opening bars in the past few months, including the Beacon and the NYLO hotel across the street from the Belleclaire. Big Nick’s was forced out after the Belleclaire attempted to raise the rent by nearly $20,000 a month following a property tax increase on the building.
The building that houses the Hotel Belleclaire and the businesses.
Thanks to Denton for the top photo.
I remember when Belleclaire was the “Banana Bungalo” a “flop house/dorm” for travelers…
Hmm… Sounds like they intended for Big Nicks to close, regardless of the rent.
So,… let me get this right. Three successful stores have to close, so another business can use their space as a non-productive entrance BECAUSE WE HAVE A LIQUOR LAW THAT DOESN’T ALLOW A LICENCED PREMISE TO FACE A CHURCH???? Are we crazy? Church-goers are teetotalers? are offended by liquor? are so corruptible that we can’t risk their seeing a building where drinking takes place?
I consulted for a wine store upstate several years ago. There are a TON of archaic laws pertaining to liquor sales in NYS, many dating back to legal wrangling that happened just after Prohibition. Nobody in government feels like they are worth the trouble of changing. Sunday sales took a HUGE effort on the part of the liquor industry.
That was my thought, too.
Wait, so they got rid of Big Nick’s just to open a hotel bar? Very exciting indeed!
There has been sidewalk shed surrounding the hotel for the better part of the last 7 years. It goes up. It comes down. It goes back up again. Presently it is gone. No one takes a sidewalk shed down with the intention of putting it back up. It it too expensive. Much cheaper to just leave it and pay the additional fee. When you see yo-yo shed placement it often means an exterior (waterproofing) problem that was thought fixed was not. It is an old tired building. Separately, a few years back I needed a place to stay for a time during an apartment renovation. I considered the Belclaire because it was close by. The place reminded me of the $20/night dumps we used to say in during college skiing trips in VT and NH. Must have been quite a renovation to now forgo what is (across the 3 displaced stores) likely $100,000 a month in commercial rents for a new entrance and future restaurant / bar rent. Then again – not many hotels on the UWS – so they likely know exactly what they are doing. Hey, it’s just business.
So – with apologies to “J” and her vision of our diversity – here goes another bit of the UWS neighborhood. Hello, Soho and Tribeca…we’re right behind.
Sheesh, when I was in high school the Belleclaire was a scary welfare hotel.
Well, this does at least sound better than another bank. I shall refer to it as Big Nick’s Bar at the Belleclaire.
Bars at the hotels are the new selling point. Keep the tourists at the hotels on the UWS instead of places like the Meatpacking District.
Have you seen the new bar at the Beacon. Looks like a lounge from the 80’s. Very pricey, and even the tourists are not buying it. Place is empty all the time.
On the Avenue, another former SRO type hotel, has that new penthouse. They are planning a club as well so how is the Bellclaire going to compete with these two other businesses.
Folks are right. They just wanted Big Nick’s out. Sadly, all the people who stayed on the UWS and established successful businesses are now being forced out because these brave pioneers survived the bad old 80’s.