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Flatiron Residents Try to Oust Retreat Lounge

By DNAinfo Staff on January 28, 2011 7:51am

Neighbors complain that Retreat Lounge is making life on the block miserable.
Neighbors complain that Retreat Lounge is making life on the block miserable.
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http://retreat-nyc.com/

By Jill Colvin

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MIDTOWN — Fed-up Flatiron District residents want the "Retreat" lounge to take a hike.

Locals who live nearby say the three-year old West 17th Street establishment, which presents itself as a swanky, upscale lounge, is making their lives miserable, with drunken, rowdy patrons and honking horns jolting them awake at 4 a.m.

"They've totally destroyed the quality on this block," neighbor Scott Ulrey, 44, told Midtown Community Board 5's Public Safety Committee at a hearing on whether to renew the club’s liquor license Wednesday night.

Ulrey, who has lived in the neighborhood for 16 years, said he no longer felt safe leaving his building late at night because of the belligerent, violent crowds.

Retreat lounge at 37 West 17th St., with its window shuttered on Thursday.
Retreat lounge at 37 West 17th St., with its window shuttered on Thursday.
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DNAinfo/Jill Colvin

Yfat Reiss Gendell, who lives and runs a literary agency on the block, said that she often arrived at work in the morning to find glass and garbage littering the street.

"It looks like a garbage dump," she complained. "It’s like a war has occurred."

Representatives from the lounge did not show up at the hearing, and managers could not immediately be reached. One employee outside the building and another who answered the phone at the number listed on the lounge's website declined to comment on complaints.

A community affairs officer at the local 13th Precinct said the department had no complaints against the club on file.

"No problems there," he said.

But board members said they had long had concerns about Retreat and several of those in attendance said they had personally called 311 as well as police numerous times in the past.

Board members also alleged discrepancies between the picture the club painted for authorities and how it was actually run, including whether it was operated more as a bar or a club.

"I just fell like the application is full of lies,” Board Member Jeffrey Zurofsky said bluntly before the group voted unanimously to recommend that the State Liquor Authority deny the lounge’s liquor license renewal. The matter will now go to the full board, which will cast its vote Feb. 10.

But board members warned residents that even the full board’s support would likely make little difference on the block, comparing the state's renewal process to a "rubber stamp."

Once an establishment has a license, it is rarely revoked, SLA officials have said.

http://retreat-nyc.com/