Bryant Park Grill saga boils over — as owner – Business News
The simmering Bryant Park Grill saga boiled over as a courtroom gave the park’s supervisor the inexperienced gentle in addition the Grill’s present operator, and the company that was slated to take over the long-lasting space with Jean-Georges Vongerichten bowed out of lease negotiations, Realty Check has discovered.
A state Supreme Court choose ruled this month that the nonprofit Bryant Park Corporation can evict the restaurant operated by Michael Weinstein’s Ark Restaurants.
“We are very happy with the decision,” stated Corporation lawyer Gil Feder.
Bryant Park Grill’s operator plans to appeal a choose’s ruling. Steve Cuozzo
But Weinstein advised The Post he plans to appeal, which may give him as a lot as one other 12 months on the helm of the favored, indoor-outdoor venue that’s one of the nation’s top-grossing locations with $25 million in annual income.
Bryant Park Corporation president Daniel Biederman declined to resume Ark’s lease when it expired final 12 months, and deliberate to exchange it with superchef Vongerichten and Seaport Entertainment Group, which owns 25% of his eatery empire.
But in a second twist, the plan that was broadly reported within the spring of 2025 is kaput.
“Seaport Entertainment Group is no longer involved in Bryant Park Grill in an operating capacity as originally contemplated. However, we continue to own 25% of Jean-Georges Management,” an SEG spokesperson advised The Post on Wednesday.
Vongerichten’s CEO Lois Freedman confirmed, “If/when we sign [a lease], we will be the operators, not Seaport Entertainment.”
Biederman stated of the Grill’s future, “Bryant Park is thrilled to welcome a new modern restaurant concept, to be announced soon, in a space so many New Yorkers and visitors know and love.”
Michael Weinstein advised The Post that the appeal may give him one other 12 months on the property whereas the case proceeds. enCourageKids Foundation
Michael McMahon, a retired former real estate asset supervisor and now a advisor to Biederman, clarified, “We’re negotiating with Jean-George for a management agreement” — in contrast to the sooner plan for SEG to lease the property.
Further complicated issues, McMahon stated that though SEG “stepped away” from lease talks, it “might be coming back in with a capital investment” within the project, though there are quite a few “complications and considerations” to work out.
Although the long-term outlook is murkier than ever, the glass-wrapped eating venue will proceed to attract locals, vacationers and workplace employees with out interruption this summer season.
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Bryant Park Grill is one of town’s strangest, long-running restaurant lease battles.
When his lease wasn’t renewed final 12 months, Weinstein vowed to proceed working the Grill and two outside cafes – as he had finished for 30 years — and Biederman wasn’t capable of boot him as the case wended its approach by means of the courts.
Weinstein fumed that Biederman ran the park as a “personal fiefdom” and griped that Vongerichten and his companions would pay a minimal $1.2 million a 12 months in rent in contrast with Ark’s $3 million.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten plans to operate an eatery on the property “if/when” his company indicators a lease. Tamara Beckwith
A flurry of fits and counter-suits included Weinstein’s claims that Biederman ran a “flawed” course of to pick a new operator that was designed to usher in Michelin-starred Vongerichten. Weinstein, then 81, was additionally allegedly a sufferer of age discrimination. Vongerichten was 68 on the time.
Weinstein’s swimsuit focused the Bryant Park Corporation, the Seaport group, town Parks Department and even the New York Public Library, whose predominant department abuts the Grill and has an advisory say.
But Judge Anar Rathod Patel stated final 12 months Ark and Weinstein have been simply sore losers over a “competitive outcome” they didn’t like.
This month, Patel affirmed that “ejectment” of Ark may proceed and dismissed Weinstein’s age-discrimination declare.
But she agreed along with his declare that Biederman was in breach of contract — opening the door to a separate trial later this 12 months over damages, “which will be substantial,” Weinstein stated.
