CBGBS: POSSIBLE DEAL?

It looks like CBGBs' fate might not be quite sealed, as the owners of the building have agreed to meet the club's owner Hilly Kristal to listen to a new proposal that could save the New York venue. Kristal had previously insisted that the owners' demands that the rent be doubled to USD40,000 was unacceptbale; for the owners, Muzzy Rosenblatt can't work out why a company with so much cashflow would have trouble finding the money:

"The club seems to be popular, they seem to be making millions of dollars with the shirts, at the door, at the bar," he said. "I don't understand why they can't pay the rent. We have been asking for a fair rent. What the BRC is saying is what we've always been saying. We're not asking for anything new. What we want in place is a structure that provides for adequate security, that should past practices of non-payment of rent return, they are much more expeditiously remedied, without it jeopardizing our activities that help homeless people, and that the rent be a fair rent. I won't subsidize CBGB at the expense of homeless people. We're talking, but a new lease would require the past bad practices be fixed, a new structure going forward, a fair rent and much more expeditious remedies that are less costly."

What may have moved the negotiations was an offer from 'Miaimi' Steve Van Zandt to play an annual benefit for the Bowery Project, the homeless charity which is the ultimate landlord to the club.

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