By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
FLATIRON DISTRICT — Award-winning restaurateur Timothy Gaglio's plans for an upscale new lounge in the Flatiron District may be derailed after his application for a liquor license was recommended for denial amidst vehement resident opposition.
Dozens of residents of 260 Park Avenue South packed last week's Community Board 5 Public Safety and Quality of Life Committee meeting to protest granting a liquor license to a proposed restaurant-lounge that would occupy much of their 12-story building's ground and basements floors. The full board, which usually follows committees lines, votes Thursday.
Gaglio, the proprietor behind Buddha Bar, F.illi Ponte and Le Madri, had tried to sell the 6,000 square-foot space as an upscale restaurant — not another drinking den to lure partygoers to the residential stretch. While the floor plans call for two bars and a DJ playing through 4 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, Gaglio insisted that the establishment's main focus would be food.
But residents were unconvinced.
"We, as your constituents, are reaching out to you. We do not want this in our community," Bob Liner, the president of the Condominium Board of 260 Park Avenue South pleaded on residents' behalf.
Residents outlined their concerns over excess noise, traffic jams and garbage on the street. Some said they were especially worried over the fact that one of the restaurant's proposed interior doorways exits directly into the condo's communal space.
More than 250 have signed a petition opposing the plan.
"There is absolutely no neighborhood support for this operation," said Attorney Charles B. Linn, whom the condo board has hired on its behalf. "This application is bogus at best."
He said that adding another bar to a neighborhood that is "currently saturated with liquor premises" would seriously compromise residents' quality of life.
But Gaglio said that the fierce opposition is not about the proposed establishment, but a long-standing dispute between the condo's residents and landlord Tessler Developments, which also owns the commercial space.
Residents have gone as far as to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office saying that Tessler has failed to make numerous promised repairs, they said.
But in the end, the committee sided with the residents, who erupted into applause at the news.
Gaglio, meanwhile, who said he had recently recovered from cancer and was trying to support two kids in college, looked clearly distraught.
"I've gone above and beyond," he said of his efforts, adding that he felt victimized and caught in the middle of an unrelated fight.
While Community Board recommendations are not binding, New York State Liquor Authority spokesman Bill Crowley said that residents' oppositions are taken very seriously.
In cases like this, where there are already three or more licensed establishments within 500 feet of a proposed licensed space, applications are usually denied, he said.
Linn has also tried to argue that the license should be denied because the Parish of Calvary St. George's Episcopal Church stands across the street from the proposed site.
According to liquor laws, licenses cannot be granted to premises that stand within 200 feet of a church — and by Linn's calculation, the distance between the property line and one of the church's doors is 199 feet and 4 inches.
While that could be a deal breaker, state records show that liquor licenses have been granted to previous proprietors at the location before, Crowley said.