After a five-year fight, CBGB will permanently close the doors of its original location at 315 Bowery on Halloween of next year. Its lease officially expired on August 31 but has come to an agreement with its landlord, the Bowery Residents Committee (BRC), which has a 45-year lease on the property. The agreement raises CBs rent from $19,000 to $35,000 a month until owner and founder Hilly Kristal is forced to leave the building in October 2006. He says he's looking at potential locations in Manhattan and is considering Las Vegas as a site to open a sister club. "We're looking here and there, and we may have both places or we may only have one place," Kristal told CMJ. "We're partnering with some people that we'll talk about in a week." The BRC is a non-profit group that houses 250 homeless people above the venue and wants to "sever" their relationship with CBGB in the interest of the homeless. And since music fans and the homeless alike need shelter from the city's sometimes bitter cultural environment, Mayor Bloomberg is ready to help. "Our administration will continue to work with the Bowery Residents Committee so that together, we might meet the needs of our city's most vulnerable residents," he said in a statement. "I still don't know how [Bloomberg] got involved, but I assume they did participate in some place," Kristal said. "They encouraged us to make a settlement. We all got together on it and it works for everybody." www.brc.org www.savecbgb.org
