New York’s City Winery Forced to Vacate Location by Disney

Relocation will happen by 2020

New York’s City Winery, which is located currently at Varick Street in Manhattan, is being forced to relocate by none other than Disney itself. The City Winery is known for putting on well-attended shows by a variety of artists. Disney has bought out the building where the winery has been located for the past decade and plans to make room for the company’s new NYC headquarters by demolishing it and the surrounding city block.

Photo of Radnor & Lee (Josh Radnor & Ben Lee) performing courtesy of City Winery’s social media taken by Ehud Lazin.

According to Gothamist, Disney signed a $650 million, 99-year lease with Trinity Church for the entire city block, with all the buildings to be demolished. “This is not unanticipated,” City Winery CEO Michael Dorf tells Gothamist. “When we signed our lease ten years ago there was a discussion and a clause about what would happen if they were to demolish the building. It foretold of the future. Trinity Church has been a good landlord and communicating with me about what was happening over the last couple of years. It was not a surprise at all. No one anticipated Disney to consummate the deal so quickly.”

The Winery hopes to be able to move on to “bigger, better and improved space,” according to their press release, in attempts to try to find the bright side in their forced relocation. Their hope is to reopen the new space on January 1, 2020 with a main venue with a 300 capacity and have a secondary venue with a 150- capacity performance space. They are also hoping to be able to update their kitchens and add a wine making facility.

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