One of the oldest bars in New York City that featured in the epic mob film Goodfellas was set to close after nearly 200 years – but in a last minute reprieve, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office intervened to keep its doors open.
Neir’s Tavern in Queens, where the Lufthansa heist was planned in the 1990 classic, was set to shut on Sunday as the owner battles crippling rent.
Fireman Loycent Gordon, who bought the bar in 2009 with friends, broke the news in an email to mates and customers.
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Neir’s Tavern in Queens, where the Lufthansa heist was planned in the 1990 classic (pictured), will shut on Sunday as the owner battles crippling rent
Fireman Loycent Gordon, who bought the bar (pictured) in 2009 with friends, broke the news in an email to mates and customers
Pictured is the outside of the bar in Queens, which will shut its doors after almost 200 years on Sunday
Rent for the property has soared from $1,100 a month to roughly $5,400 after it was bought for $1.35million in 2018 by an LLC called 353 Rockaway Realty.
Gordon, 40, who still works full time as a fireman, told the Gothamist: ‘I don’t have enough time to fight these battles anymore.’
He added that due to eye-watering rent and no long-term lease, it was unlikely the bar could continue in different hands.
It comes after Mr Gordon tried to secure landmark status for the bar last year in a bid to save it.
He wrote: ‘Everyday I pray I would find a way to dedicate more time to overcome these challenges until yesterday I had to face the truth.’
‘I’m sorry I let you down. I’m sorry I couldn’t get landmark status. I’m sorry I couldn’t buy the building.’
But in a remarkable turnaround, the building’s landlord struck a ‘handshake deal’ to renew the lease for another five years.
According to the New York Times, Gordon and his brother Ken met with the building’s owner – Henry Shi – along with city councilman Robert Holden and assemblyman Mike Miller to find a compromise.
Holden, a Democrat representing the area, told the publication that negotiations were ‘tense’ but it became clear that Shi could not get a mortgage on the property because it lacked proper certificates and did not meet zoning rules.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Twitter on Friday afternoon that the bar’s doors will stay open after the owner, Henry Shi, was awarded a $90,000 grant to get the building up to standard.
The agreement put in place means that Holden’s office will work to ensure the building meets all its requirements, provide a small business grant to improve the property and in return Shi would raise the rent less than he proposed, according to the New York Times.
It’s unclear how much the rent will be under this new agreement.
The rustic gin hall in Queen’s opened in 1829 and is said to have hosted actress Mae West’s first performance and movies such as the notorious scene in Goodfellas.
Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta became regulars at the watering hole while filming Goodfellas and harbored a deep affection for it, according to the Queens Tribune.
In the movie, the Lufthansa heist was based on a real robbery which saw gang members steal around $5million in cash and $875,000 worth of jewelry from the German airline at JFK airport in 1978.
The thugs brutally attacked airport workers guarding the cash in what was the biggest cash theft at the time.
Each mobster who took part was supposed to get $750,000, but most did not live receive the cash, prosecutors wrote in court papers.
Rent for the property (pictured) has soared from $1,100 a month to roughly $5,400 after it was bought for $1.35million in 2018 by an LLC called 353 Rockaway Realty
The rustic gin hall in Queen’s opened in 1829 and is said to have hosted actress Mae West’s first performance and movies such as the notorious scene in Goodfellas (pictured, Robert DeNiro)
There were numerous suspected participants, but one only man – cargo agent Louis Werner – was ever convicted.
The FBI has always agreed with the plot of Goodfellas about all loose connections to the robbery being killed off by paranoid mob bosses.
Neir’s opened as The Blue Pump Room by the owner of a racecourse which was then across the street.
In 1835 it was renamed The Old Abbey.
Neir’s (pictured) opened as The Blue Pump Room by the owner of a racecourse which was then across the street
It was bought in 1851 by a politician who maintained it for 40 years, before a man named Louis Neir arrived in 1898 (pictured)
The FBI has always agreed with the plot of Goodfellas (pictured) about all loose connections to the robbery being killed off by paranoid mob bosses
According to Neir’s website, the racecourse went through a bumpy financial patch, and the bar became known as a ‘notorious rumseller’ for ‘black legs, thieves, housebreakers [and] fighting men’.
It was bought in 1851 by a politician who maintained it for 40 years, before a man named Louis Neir arrived in 1898.
Neir’s Social Hall, as he dubbed it, was extended to include a ballroom, bowling alley, and hotel rooms.
It was sold in 1967 and renamed the Union Course Tavern, which closed in 2009.
More recent owners finished constructing Neir’s mahogany bars, and reopened as Neir’s Tavern.