Bids to purchase the Dublin Pub were received at an auction last Wednesday, but the winning offer remains an open question since the sellers were permitted to consider additional bids this week under the terms of the proceedings.
Misha Haghani, president of Paramount Realty, which handled the July 24 auction for the defunct New Hyde Park bar, declined to identify the identity of the action’s highest bidder or the amount offered.
But Haghani did not rule out the possibility it could be the offer that is eventually selected.
“It is within the range of reasonability for the property,” he said.
Haghani said that as a reserve auction, Dublin Pub owners Stan Majewski and Scott Blitzer have seven days to decide on whether or not to accept the offer received at the office of East Meadow lawyer Richard Gertler, who represents the pub’s owners
Auction information prepared by Paramount set the opening bid for the bar property, which is located at 2002 Jericho Turnpike, at $899,000. The auction information also indicates an appraised value of $1.4 million as of October 2011.
Haghani said he received more inquiries about the property and the auction results on Thursday than he had received in the 10 days leading up to the auction.
So he said he thinks there is a “probability” that another bid could top the winning auction bid.
“If they reject this bid, I would imagine that they would do that because they would receive a higher bid in these few days post-auction,” Haghani said.
He said there were fewer bidders at the auction than he had anticipated. He also said most of the post-auction inquiries were from people who had obtained information about the property before the bidding, but didn’t show up for the auction.
Some of the callers said they had just heard about the auction, he said.
The state Liquor Authority board revoked the bar’s license on April 23 after suspending the license in late March for allegedly selling alcohol to underage customers on two recent occasions, according to state Liquor Authority spokesman William Crowley.
“They voted for revocation of the license,” Crowley said.
The state Liquor Authority had found the bar in violation of state liquor regulations on several occasions over the past decade.
In the suspension order issued in March, S & S Pub – the company that owned Dublin Pub – was also cited for failing to comply with conditions in a previous order.
Haghani said the state Liquor Authority in April had offered the owners two options – to fight the revocation or surrender the license and make an argument that they did no wrong.
“They voluntarily surrendered their liquor license and they have not attempted to get their license back because they don’t want to spend more money on it. So they’re stepping away,” Haghani said.
Haghani said Majewski and Blitzer had worked at the bar for several years before buying it from one of its four original owners in 2001. The partners had invested more than $1 million in the 6,441-square-foot facility, which had been a bar or a pub since 1936 and was operating as the Dublin Pub since 1968, Haghani said.
Efforts to reach Majewski and Blitzer were unavailing.
In a letter to the state Liquor Authority prior to the March 22 hearing, lawyer Warren Pesetsky, who represented S & S Pub, entered a “no contest” plea to selling alcohol to underage customers and promised that pub employees would check the age of its patrons, buy ID scanners and implement a training program for employees at the pub.
In the March suspension, the state Liquor Authority said Nassau County Police Officers responded to a 911 call on Feb. 22 that a 19-year-old woman was highly intoxicated and passed out on the floor of the bathroom at the Dublin Pub. The woman, who was transported to a hospital and treated for intoxication, later provided the liquor authority a written statement that she and six friends were consuming alcohol at the bar and had done so on at least 10 occasions in the recent past.
She also said that her friend was told by the bar’s bouncer to falsely state that she was intoxicated when she entered the bar, according to liquor authority documents
On March 1, the liquor authority said the Nassau County Police officers observed a visibly intoxicated 18-year-man leaving the pub. Four bartenders were subsequently arrested after the minor said each of them sold him alcohol without asking for identification, according to the liquor authority, which said a Breathalyzer test resulted in a reading of .183. The young man was then transported to a local hospital.
Liquor authority documents showed the bar had been cited for violations dating back to 2003.
In June 2012, liquor authority records show, the bar received a $6,000 fine for selling alcohol to minors on May 16, 2010 and permitting an altercation or an assault to take place on the premises.
Haghani said the location has potential as a restaurant with the recent opening of the 24-hour UFC Gym nearby. He said it could also be operated as a bar again.
