199 Bowery Condo Owners Sue EMM Group Over ‘Finale’ and ‘Bow’
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The thorn in the side of the Bowery is now festering big time. So to speak. EMM Group and their illegal backroom club Finale are now targets of a new lawsuit brought on by tenants of 199 Bowery. The shit has officially hit the fan.
We reported a few months back that some of the condo owners in the building were mobilizing against the Lower East Packers, who totally hoodwinked the community with their intentions. And now the Daily News has the scoop on their efforts. The paper expounds:
In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, the condo owners, led by Danielle Schwob. said the State Liquor Authority violated state law because there are only supposed to be three licensed facilities within 500 feet of their building but there are 27. The clubs, which opened in November and operate under one license, are the 28th.
To break the 500-foot rule, they said, the SLA had to make a finding that the club was needed in the community.
Richard Halpern, president of the condo board, said some condo units are “uninhabitable” and a noise expert hired by the board found that the decibel level is effectively four times the limit allowed by city law.
The club boasts of having a sound system that is “the biggest and loudest in Manhattan” and has “lines of waiting patrons stretching down the block from 11 p.m. on into the night.”
EMM reps will again appear before Community Board 3 on March 11 to try and legitimize Finale. They were forced to withdraw the application last month. Meanwhile, it’s also worth mentioning that the nightspot was raided by the cops last night for as-yet-unknown reason.