Sept. 6, 2016 Staff Report
Vivire, a cozy bar that opened on Greenpoint Avenue two years ago, is currently for sale.
The bar, located at 41-21 Greenpoint Ave., is for sale for $300,000, according to a listing placed on Craigslist.
When the bar opened in September 2014, its owners decided to target young professionals, offering a selection of wine and scotch to cater to this group. They believed that Greenpoint Avenue, between 40th and 41st Streets, was undergoing a revival—as C-Town, Don Pollo and Blue Z Liquor had all just opened.
The listing describes the bar has having “great visibility and heavy foot traffic in a quickly developing neighborhood. 2 blocks away from 7 train. Low rent.”
The ad goes onto say that it is was renovated with “an antique, industrial, modern aesthetic including exposed beams, brick, and wooden bar.”
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32 Comments
@SAM- TRUE WHAT YOU SAY. I SAW A KID ,MAYBE 12 YRS OLD HANDING OUT FLYERS FOR THE PLACE WHEN THEY WERE OPENING. I TOLD MY WIFE I WOULD NEVER GO IN A BAR THAT USES KIDS TO PROMOTE THE BUSINESS. SOME CUSTOMERS IN CTOWN OVERHEARD US AND SAID THE SAME THING. DONT KNOW IF ITS TRUE BUT THE PERSON SAID IT WAS AN OWNERS SON. IF THAT’S TRUE THEY(SLA) SHOULD PULL THE LIQUOR LICENSE
I actually think that the bar is a little ahead of its time. The clientele that it would attract is only beginning to move into the South Side. As somebody pointed out, it isn’t a great idea to have a dark store front in the center of a block off of the beaten path. Especially next to a bright supermarket. It could have done with an overhanging neon sign. But I’m not sure if they are allowed to. Another problem is the staff, who are really sweet and attentive but not cut out for the neighborhood. They needed to put an out of work neighborhood person with a following behind the on salary for now. And with all of the bar closings in the neighborhood there were tons of those. But the real killer are the prices. They have glasses of wine for $14. And the staff won’t warn you. You have a customer in this neighborhood who finds out that what he or she was drinking was $10-$12 a drink when he or she gets the bill and that is the last time you will see them. Anyone paying that is hitting a hotel bar by GCT before they get on the 7.
I don’t know how far underwater the place is, but with a couple of tweeks they could survive and then flourish as the South Side continues to gentrify. They put so much work into it, it would be a shame to cut now. And, like someone said, anything in six figures is insane.
Make it a tire shop
Please no more irish bars,No more asian nail salons, no more latin chicken, no more pizza (italian or whatever.) Put a gay bar
Or aTg bar
A good clean Irish Bar required a lot of young Irish will jump on this
Total shit show from day one, there’s no foot traffic there at all, the grocery closes at 10, and the place doesn’t open until 6 with a grade pending. Nobody knows how to pronounce the name to start with and the storefront does it no justice at all.
And these idiots want 300k.
Yeah sure.
It actually opens at 4pm..grade pending is not up to owners ,and the storefront is probably the nicest on the entire block
i take offense to that! yes i may superior bank account and more refined taste buds but i have to buy milk and toilet paper just like you everyday joes!!
To paraphrase Lou Reed, if you speak as well as you write, no one listens to you.
Very greedy. I know they were only paying 3500$/month in rent. The owners renovated at their own expense after they took the space from a defaulted medical practice. Pure greed asking $300k! That’s not a 300k reno job so the owners are just looking for a payday.
Simple question: what is the “business”. What consideration is being given in return for $300,000. A below market lease? Existing clientele / foot traffic? An expensive “build-out” / interior finishes? The name, the brand?
It’s an initial asking price that nobody will ever pay. The reality? If you have $300,000 to spend on a new bar, or even half that, and you suspect the business is hemorrhaging money, why not wait a few months until they shutter their storefront and THEN call the landlord up? The LL won’t want to wait for someone to pay even 25% of that price. They don’t care enough about selling former tenant’s stuff. Technically the tenant can remove everything back to a “white box”, but that takes money and hard labor. They usually take the liquor, cashier, computer, stereo, and turn the keys over to the landlord. Landlords want revenue or a healthy “rent roll”. The bar is probably a month or two in arrears. Only a matter of time before they close and the landlord will likely give a new lease with similar rent to the next tenant and not require a dime for the existing “business”, or more accurately the interior finishes.
Now they can open another Colombian restaurant there.
300 Hundred Dollar’s, About Right.
I don’t think I would regard the opening of C-Town as a signal that high-end scotch drinkers had moved in.
Yes. Location, location, and location. This place would have done better on the north side of the blvd. They took a risk, and lost. They should have consulted someone in the neighborhood. They would have realized change around here moves at a snails pace. It’s what sunnyside and environs wants. The demographic they wanted doesn’t walk the streets or hang out around Greenpoint.
that stretch between 41st and 42nd is pretty much cursed… although the businesses on that side of the street tend to fare better than the ones across the street, i’ve seen so many stores come and go. the colombian place was the only one that survived and even they’ve changed hands. Vivire felt like it was going to be a fun place but I never actually stepped foot in it, mainly because there was a bartender that looked way too young to be bartending and one other person in there at most.
That’s true. There literally was a fifteen year old girl bartending in there the one time I went in there for a drink.
This place could make a ton of money if they stuck to a clear concept. It’s pitched as a nice but low-key cocktail place; it’s decorated as a Midwestern teen’s conception of the same, but every time i went they were blasting terrible music and it was filled with white trash pounding Coors or something similar. If they could actually execute the idea they’re selling on their web site, they’d stand out and do well.
That and they need food. Even in Manhattan, I can’t think of a wine/cocktail bar that made I without food. If you’re only gonna serve alcohol, you need draft beer and advertized specials. Instead, its a brunch place without brunch.
went in once and saw the same types that go to the McGuinness Bar and Jack’s Fire Dept. Low Class Trash.
Advertised as a wine bar, and then it’s all sports screens.
Agreed..enough sports bars..lose the tv’s
How can you have a scotch/wine sophisticated lounge over there. Stupidity on the part of the owner
Snob
That didnt take long. 300k for a small empty bar. They will be lucky to get 25k.
“Slum” you are truly a very mean spirited person. And unless you live in “THE” Gardens you live in a slum also!
I knew that was going to happen. Never but one or two people in there. I was alway perplexed as to why they didn’t offer draft beers.
Why didn’t you ask them.. The answer to your perplexing question is they don’t have a basement so there is no place for the kegs or to run lines
-me Ad in craigslist states there is a thousand square foot basement.
There is a basement and room I’ve been in it. Idiot.
Chuckie cheese