Features
New York’s City Winery Announces Relocation To Hudson River Park
Courtesy City Winery – Rendering of City Winery’s new location at Pier 57.
New York’s City Winery has found its new home eight months after founder/CEO Michael Dorf broke the news that the venue was being forced to relocate. City Winery announced April 12 it has signed a 25-year lease for a 32,000-square foot space at Pier 57 in Hudson River Park, a waterside park on the West Side of Manhattan.
The venue is expected to open in January 2020, with construction already underway.
The location will include a seated 350-seat concert hall, a 150-capacity loft space, a 100-seat capacity restaurant and tasting room, along with a winery/wine production facility. The restaurant will feature a pizza bar and coffee roasting station, while the tasting room will have City Winery’s proprietary tap system with 12 wines straight from the keg.
Pier 57, which is located on the National and State Registers of Historic Places, is near Chelsea Market, the Meatpacking District, the High Line and the Whitney Museum. The April 12 announcement from City Winery notes that Google will occupy a majority of the Pier.
Since opening the 20,000-square foot City Winery in 2008 in the heart of Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, the company has expanded with locations in Chicago, Nashville, Atlanta, Boston and Washington, D.C. One of the biggest advantages of the new NYC location is that the space will be bigger at 32,000-square feet, comparable to the other locations at 30,000-square feet. The design is also preferable to the original NYC location, rather than opening the doors and immediately being in the venue – better suiting the experience of a listening room and the chance for intimate performances.
“It’s our flagship location so to finally be able to see the vision that’s evolved over 10 years, now in our home market is very, very exciting,” Dorf said.
The Hudson River Park area is also a big selling point.
“You have all these architectural significant buildings on the West Side,” Dorf said. “The neighborhood feels like a very good fit for a cultural, cool facility.
“To be a part of that momentum and that neighborhood is great. … You can access the High Line steps from our front door.”
“One side of our main facility overlooks the Hudson river, with really dramatic views and one side is going to look into our wine making facility. You’re going to have some incredibly unique visuals that we didn’t have [at the old location].”
The new venue will feature “some big room tricks but in a more intimate space,” such as access to dressing rooms that can come from a garage and loading dock, making for an appealing room for bigger stars who would want to put on a special show.
As for the grand opening in early 2020, Dorf couldn’t share any details but promised that City Winery is going to “come out of the gate with really great programming.”
Dorf announced in July that City Winery was planning to move after spending 10 years at 155 Varick Street. Walt Disney Co. bought the development rights to the 4 Hudson Square site, which included the 30,000-square foot venue, from Trinity Church Real Estate to build its New York headquarters, according to Bloomberg.
City Winery filed a $2 million lawsuit against Trinity in late January to recoup the funds the venue invested in renovating the building’s second floor and roof, allegedly at the landlord’s request. The complaint said Trinity had agreed “the capital investment would be recovered through a rent abatement and would be repaid,” according to AM New York.
“Trinity enticed us to sign a new five-year deal and put money into the building and basically told us, you’re going to have at least three years, but probably the full five years of your new lease. And they obviously didn’t honor it,” Dorf said. “It’s surprising because they’re the church. One would think a church would be honorable. In the words of my Yiddish grandfather, the church would be a mensch.
“We’re not trying to screw them just to get money, just because. We just simply want to get the money back that we put into the building that they told us we’d be able to have the time to earn back. It’s a straight forward lawsuit. They’re doing what all sorts of recipients of lawsuits and scumbag real estate people will do, they’re trying to dismiss it. We’re going to survive their motion to dismiss the suit and it’s going to be a bit of a legal battle. It’s unfortunate because they’re a gigantic, billionaire dollar entity and we’re a small music presenter. The only thing that makes me feel good and confident is I know we’re on the right side of the law and we’re on the right side of consciousness.”
The 155 Varick Street location is scheduled to close at the end of July. Upcoming performances include Ryan Montbleau, Steve Forbert, Karla Bonoff and Jimmy Webb. Recent reports submitted to Pollstar’s Boxoffice include a March 25 Big Bad Voodoo Daddy show that grossed $11,354 and two gigs from Marc Cohen Feb. 14-15 that grossed $36,328.
City Winery also has locations in Chicago, Nashville, Atlanta, Boston, and Washington, D.C. A Philadelphia location is set to open later this year.
READ MORE:
Shlomo Lipetz Talks City Winery 3.0 (And He Doesn’t Mean His Earned Run Average)
Sweet Relief: How Michael Dorf’s City Winery Offsite Became A Mission To Aid Puerto Rico