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McCarren Hotel to Continue Serving Poolside Booze Despite Noise Complaints

By Serena Dai | March 11, 2015 12:33pm
 McCarren Hotel and Pool, located at 160 North 12th St., is being blasted for being a bad neighbor to local residents.
McCarren Hotel and Pool, located at 160 North 12th St., is being blasted for being a bad neighbor to local residents.
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Facebook/McCarren Hotel and Pool

WILLIAMSBURG — The McCarren Hotel will continue serving poolside drinks despite neighborhood complaints that noise and lights are destroying quality of life in the area.

Community Board 1 voted to deny the hotel's request to renew its liquor license Tuesday after locals complained of music and lights blaring from the 4,800-square-foot rooftop pool and bar.

However, the State Liquor Authority had already approved the hotel's liquor license renewal on March 1 without hearing from the CB1, SLA spokesman Bill Crowley said.

Since 2012, the 160 North 12th St. has logged seven noise complaints in the city's 311 system.

"People who live around there have been complaining," said Bogdan Bachorowski, chairman of CB1's State Liquor Authority committee.

Representatives from the hotel initially agreed to certain rules, such as limiting amplified music, restricting the number of people who can be at the pool and shutting down the pool by 11 p.m. on weekdays and 1 a.m. on weekends, said SLA committee co-chairman Thomas Burrows.

But after hotelier King & Grove bought the McCarren in 2012 for $33 million, the agreement seemingly went out the window, Burrows noted.

King & Grove has since rebranded itself Chelsea Hotels Group, according to a spokesperson.

"As soon as they opened, they sold it to another owner who didn’t follow any rules," Burrows said.

A spokesperson from Chelsea Hotels Group, which also owns the famed Chelsea Hotel, said that they had not been contacted by the community board about complaints but planned to address them.

The hotel has been "aiming for less of a nightclub atmosphere," a spokesperson said.

"We are conscious of our neighbors, many of whom are frequent visitors of the hotel, and are committed to maintaining a good relationship with them," the hotel said in a statement.

Some 38 people signed a petition with Community Board 1 asking that the board deny the liquor license renewal.

They wrote that the hotel plays music until 3 or 4 a.m. during the summer and rarely turns the volume down when residents complain. Calls to 311 and police have not solved the problem, they added.

"The noise from the hotel is unbearable," wrote local resident Louise Hunnicutt. "It keeps us from opening our windows, sleeping and even hearing the television in our own apartment."

Despite the renewal, the state could still look into the hotel's behavior, Crowley said.

"We receive complaints from community boards and open investigations based on these complaints regularly," he said.

Editor's Note: A previous version of this story said the liquor license renewal had not yet been decided on by the SLA.