By Lauren Dzura
On May 27 the heavy wooden doors of the nightclub NV on the corner of Hudson and Spring Sts. closed for the last time. After making the location its home for 10 years, the club lost its lease and many residents are happily bidding it good riddance.
“The place was a total hellhole, we’re very happy to see it go,” said David Reck, a Community Board 2 member and president of Friends of Hudson Sq.
According to Reck, NV was deceptive in their application to the community board, claiming it would be a small bar on the first floor only and would close at midnight. However, once the community board approved its application under these circumstances, NV submitted an application as a club to the State Liquor Authority and expanded to two floors. About eight months after the nightclub opened, a string of murders, stabbings and other violent behavior began.
“We’re very familiar with NV and the trouble that we’ve been responding to there for the past few years,” said Lieutenant Rob Christie, First Precinct operations officer. Most recently, on April 28, rapper Memphis Bleek and a friend were arrested and charged with second-degree assault in connection with beating an NV busboy. In April 2002 a man was stabbed in the leg after being attacked by six to eight men, and another man was slashed across the forehead in an incident in March 2003.
There have been frequent complaints from residents about NV. In an Oct. 6, 2004, article in The Villager about another club trying to open nearby, neighbor Donna Mitchell said NV was already too much for the neighborhood to handle. “There are condoms, amyl nitrate poppers on the street in the morning,” she said. “You have an S.U.V. with a speaker the size of this room. They’re out of their neighborhood,” she said of the club’s patrons. “They’re out to have a good time.”
However, employees with the club thought they were respectful to neighbors. “We tried to keep the neighborhood in mind, there was no smoking outside, or inside,” said Victor Wilkinson, an agent for NV.
Residents’ worries can finally be put to rest because Trinity Real Estate Group, owner of the building on 304 Hudson St. that housed NV says it is not looking to put another bar/club in the space.
“We want to put something more upscale in that area,” said Thomas Lynch, assistant director of leasing at Trinity Real Estate. Ideas for the vacant space include an art gallery or restaurant. These are “easier tenants,” according to Lynch, because they would not have the operational issues of a bar/nightclub.
On June 6 the club, having lost its lease, held an open auction to get rid of literally everything inside. The white walls, floors and couches were stripped bare and everything was laid out with bright orange stickers indicating the auction numbers.
