Liberty Bar Moving South (Howe: houses, buy, approval)

[V3rtigo]

Originally Posted by mtdave2

yep, i doubt they will do well any place else. i mean to food is ok, but its nothing that i would go out of my way for. its all about the leaning house. i wish them well, i hope they do ok with out their identity.

ditto. everyone raves about liberty bar. once you go inside in once and see the leaning walls and sloped floors, youre basically done there. the food is passable at best.

[jwebtx]

Glad to see friend and great architect Davis at the helm of the new project. This is a win for King William.

Hopefully, the new tenant will be a restaurant that can take it up a notch or 2 from what Liberty offered.

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by LindaGrace

You got it!

I do hope they are just opening a second location and keeping the original old house.

Either way, so long as it's open I'll survive.

I texted my best friend to let her know and she texted back, "Damn it! I just figured out how to get there without you!"

In the EN article, there's a comment discussing the rumours surrounding ownership of the building. I've heard the same rumour - not that this makes it true, just another person hearing the same thing. Story is that the owner tried to buy the building, landlord raised rents and either wouldn't sell or wouldn't sell low enough due to the Pearl redevelopment, so the owner had to go elsewhere. It's ironic given the development of Pearl is a great thing for the area, that one of the signature restaurants there is forced out because of that.

I also heard the rumour about it being torn down for a parking garage, but I think it's been declared historic, and if not, will likely be if the society acts quickly, which would prevent that. Hopefully. It's a wonderful old relic where the much of the original area is gone to concrete blocks. I would hate to see the building go.

As for the food, I agree it's not that great. Love their appetizers and one or two dishes, but the rest wasn't wonderful. That said, I have no doubt it'll still do well in its new location - heavy foot traffic, heavy touristed area, strong local support and it does have a number of die-hard fans throughout the city. Its new location is also a unique historic building, just not looking like it's falling down (and the very opposite original purpose - brothel to convent.....). However, the Benedict is verrrrrry slow to finish. I haven't noticed the convent building lately though, hopefully it's a little further along.

[kevcrawford]

The Liberty Bar will do just fine in the new location. However, the landlord is going to regret the decision of trying to raise the rents that much. Right now the leaning building is part of the Liberty Bar's identity. When they leave, nobody will want to pay a ton of money to move into a "falling down house". The combo of the Liberty Bar and the house made it unique. Now it's just going to be a crappy building that costs too much to rent. He's going to have to pump a TON of money into it to get it up to code for a new renter. It's going to backfire.

[Bo]

Originally Posted by kevcrawford

The Liberty Bar will do just fine in the new location. However, the landlord is going to regret the decision of trying to raise the rents that much. Right now the leaning building is part of the Liberty Bar's identity. When they leave, nobody will want to pay a ton of money to move into a "falling down house". The combo of the Liberty Bar and the house made it unique. Now it's just going to be a crappy building that costs too much to rent. He's going to have to pump a TON of money into it to get it up to code for a new renter. It's going to backfire.

With the visibility from 281 and the new traffic to the Pearl Brewery area, don't you figure that land the house sits on will soon be more valuable than the building? When that happens, he can sell it off or build-to-suit for a new tenant.

[kevcrawford]

I'm sure it's possible. He's definitely got a good piece of land, but it sounded like it was more of a rent thing in the article. Of course, that was only coming from the Liberty Bar's side.

[LindaGrace]

If the building is declared historic, it will have to stand as-is, no? In other words, no build to suit if it's declared an historic building.

[smitty12]

Originally Posted by LindaGrace

If the building is declared historic, it will have to stand as-is, no? In other words, no build to suit if it's declared an historic building.

But you also don't have to spend money to upkeep a historic building. I don't know what it takes to keep that building from falling down, but I imagine that after a year or two of being empty the building might just fall down on its own, historic or not.

[BenjaminNicholas]

It's actually coming along faster than imagined. They had initial move-ins this past week and the whole project is slated to finish in mid-late August. I toured the penthouse units and it's about 70% complete. Looking good and I'm anxious to see a finished product...

Great pool. I hear that Liberty Bar will be doing poolside catering and a bar for residents.

Large gym space. Didn't see the actual equipment, but the square footage is impressive.

After being highly disappointed with The Vistana's finish-out, it's nice to see a developer taking the time and money to really do it right with this luxury lease property. It's intimate (66 units) and really is interesting.




BN

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by BenjaminNicholas

It's actually coming along faster than imagined. They had initial move-ins this past week and the whole project is slated to finish in mid-late August. I toured the penthouse units and it's about 70% complete. Looking good and I'm anxious to see a finished product...

Great pool. I hear that Liberty Bar will be doing poolside catering and a bar for residents.

Large gym space. Didn't see the actual equipment, but the square footage is impressive.

After being highly disappointed with The Vistana's finish-out, it's nice to see a developer taking the time and money to really do it right with this luxury lease property. It's intimate (66 units) and really is interesting.




BN

Good to know. I just went by yesterday and it did look like more had been done, but it looked a long ways from being finished. However, I was driving and not looking that closely. I will be so happy to see it finished!

And pool-side service? Wow!