The best spot to relax, drink an old fashioned and take in the atmosphere in Grand Central is definitely the Campbell Apartment. But that could soon change. The MTA wants the famed cocktail bar out.
Mark Grossich, who has spent $2.5 million restoring the former office of financier John W. Campbell, has sued the MTA, claiming that his bar is being booted after 17 years due to an unfair bidding process, according to the New York Post.
The MTA then revealed that it signed a 10-year lease for the Campbell Apartment with hospitality investor Scott Gerber, who owns the Irvington in the W Hotel in Union Square and cofounded The Whiskey with his brother Rande Gerber (Cindy Crawford’s husband).
The MTA explained that Grossich was on a month-to-month lease and that Gerber offered “significantly more” money – specifically, about double the current monthly rent of $16,000.
But Grossich claimed that the MTA failed to conduct an independent real estate appraisal of the space as required under the law and its own guidelines, according to the Post. And Manhattan Judge Kathryn Freed stayed any eviction until at least April 27. [NYP] –Christopher Cameron