{"id":216,"date":"2005-04-19T08:05:10","date_gmt":"2005-04-19T16:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2005\/04\/source_hojo_gone_by_new_year.html"},"modified":"2005-04-19T08:05:10","modified_gmt":"2005-04-19T16:05:10","slug":"source_hojo_gon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2005\/04\/source_hojo_gon.html","title":{"rendered":"“Source”: HoJo Gone By New Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Post reports that the the Times Square site on which the Howard Johnson’s restaurant sits has been sold and the restaurant will likely be gone by the new year<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Times Square’s Howard Johnson’s, a neon-lit, fast-food landmark in the Crossroads of the World for 50 years, will soon be razed to make way for a glamorous new retail development, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n

No closing date has been set, but the favorite eatery of Times Square sentimentalists “will not likely see another New Year’s Eve ball-drop,” a source said yesterday.<\/p>\n

The four-story building with the winking blue and orange lights at Broadway and 46th Street “will soon come down,” confirmed Cushman & Wakefield real-estate broker C. Bradley Mendelson, who represents the new owner, Jeff Sutton’s Wharton Acquisitions.<\/p>\n

Longtime owner Kenneth Rubinstein and his family just sold the HoJo’s site at 1551 Broadway, next-door 1555 Broadway, and a building on West 34th Street to Sutton for “more than $100 million,” Mendelson said.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And by “glamorous new retail development” they mean a box-like Toys-“R”-Us-type store. Glamorous, indeed:<\/p>\n

Don’t expect another low-cost eatery: Sutton is the owner of such “trophy” retail venues as the Fifth Avenue sites of Hugo Boss, American Girl Place, and the new Abercrombie & Fitch.<\/p>\n

Sources said he plans to level both Broadway buildings and construct a gleaming new “retail box,” similar to the nearby Toys “R” Us, that will “offer a world-class branding opportunity for international or Fortune 500 companies.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Personally, I’m holding out for the return of the WWF restaurant, or better digs for the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.<\/p>\n

The Post, unable to veil its extreme partisan bent, notes that what really is at stake here is a storied tradition of cheap drinks and fried clams:<\/p>\n

Its blue-and-brown booths, old-fashioned counter and bar serving $3.75 cocktails \u00e2\u20ac\u201d “except premium brands” \u00e2\u20ac\u201d seems an anachronism amidst the “new” Times Square’s concentration of media and financial skyscrapers, hip hotels and bright electronic displays.<\/p>\n

The grungy but cozy spot for fried clams and open-faced tuna sandwiches is flanked by more recent landmarks, such as the giant Bank of America supersign, the W Hotel and Toys “R” Us with its indoor Ferris wheel.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Post reports that the the Times Square site on which the Howard Johnson’s restaurant sits has been sold and the restaurant will likely be gone by the new year: Times Square’s Howard Johnson’s, a neon-lit, fast-food landmark in the Crossroads of the World for 50 years, will soon be razed to make way for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-manhattan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}