If you haven't been following commercial broker Steven Kamali's Hard Sell dispatches on Eater, well, we feel sorry for you. But Kamali also sends regular updates about what nightlife properties he's marketing, and his most recent one is so Curbed worthy it hurts. The building for sale is the four floors (plus basement) at 137 Ludlow, "currently being operated as a Restaurant & Lounge, a three-level bar and nightclub." A simple Google search reveals the harsh truth: Libation is for sale, and it's going to be delivered vacant. Holy. Mother. Of. Eff.
The cost? $5.5 million (about $753/sf), but how can you put a price on the impact Libation had on the Lower East Side? Heralded by a press release for the ages, Libation was the first superclub to bring an uptown, velvety rope vibe to the (at the time) hipster-dominated LES, and it was right smack in the middle of Hell Square. Its 2004 opening, which flooded Ludlow Street with a bridge & tunnel crowd awash in $12 cocktails, snipped the last remaining thread of Jason Baron's sanity. Libation meant full-scale war. And soon it will be gone, and it pains us to say this, but we're feeling a little nostalgic. Will we go there for one last, er, libation before it's all said and done? No, but you get the picture.
· LES: The Hipster Wars Continue? [Curbed]
· Libation [Official Site]