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Bowery Club Finale Loses Bid for Dance Space

By Ben Fractenberg | February 13, 2013 7:12am

LOWER EAST SIDE — It was a bad night for owners of the 6,000 square-foot club Finale on the Bowery at a Community Board 3 meeting Monday.

The EMM Group asked the SLA committee to allow them to move their dance space from the Jazz lounge in the basement of the building at 199 Bowery to the ground floor, Grub Street reported Tuesday.

With board members split over whether to approve, club owners Mark Birnbaum and Eugene Remm withdrew their application.

Critics claimed the club owners were pulling a "bait-and-switch" since their original liquor license approved in 2011 was for a restaurant, bakery and bar.

“Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining,” neighborhood activist Michele Campo said during the heated meeting, Bowery Boogie reported.

Birnbaum and Remm reportedly argued that soundproofing in the basement was impossible and that they already spent $1.5 million on insulating the ground-level space.

Finale can go for another approval during the next meeting in March.