“We’re so glad to see the clubs go, but I’m guardedly optimistic,” said Susan Finley, co-founder of the Flatiron Alliance, which long battled Limelight and its troubled replacement, Club Avalon. “We’ve been lied to so many times.”
Residents are worried that the mall is “one big dodge to get a club going there,” said Board 5 Landmarks Chairman Howard Mendes, whose committee recommended rejecting the proposal.
He pointed to a large empty space in the floor plan that would be “perfect for dancing,” and to the continued ownership of real-estate developer Ben Ashkenazy, who rented the 163-year-old former Episcopal church at Sixth Avenue and 20th Street to Gatien.