Battling to stay alive, Midtown’s legendary subterranean “dive” bar is eying a move to a nearby underground site that’s more glam than grungy.
Siberia, the dank, celebrity-infested haunt at 1627 Broadway, in the downtown Seventh Avenue IRT station at 50th Street, faces imminent eviction by its landlord, the Rockefeller Group.
The other day, Siberia owner Tracy Westmoreland chained himself to a Catholic priest for a photo-op to publicize the desperate plight of his grimy but gemutlich saloon, a favorite with media types, writers and celebrities including Winona Ryder.
But at the same time he’s fighting to reverse the court-ordered eviction, he’s also in talks to relocate to the Rockefeller Center underground shopping concourse two blocks east.
Rockefeller Center and the Rockefeller Group, often confused, are entirely separate companies. Rockefeller Center, managed by Tishman Speyer, is the original landmarked complex between Fifth and Sixth avenues.
The Rockefeller Group manages the newer office buildings on the west side of Sixth Avenue. Rock Group also owns other property nearby – including 1627 Broadway.
“We want to move into the site in Rockefeller Center,” embattled Westmoreland says. “But we’re looking at other locations, as well.”
Rent at the new, 1,000-square-foot spot would be “four times more” than what he’s paying now under a sublease with the Riese Organization, which held a master lease.
Rents in the Rock Center concourse run “in the neighborhood of $100 a square foot, plus or minus,” a source said.
Although no lease has been signed, overeager Rock Center staffers jumped the gun by putting large “Siberia Bar” signs in the windows.
Westmoreland says, “I like that space because it’s the first thing you see when you come down the stairs off Sixth Avenue,” via the entrance next to Radio City Music Hall.
According to a Rockefeller Group spokesperson, Siberia “no longer has tenant status” at its old site since the Group terminated its master lease with Riese last year.
She said that Westmoreland agreed in July to move out last Oct. 31, after having his rent lowered.
Westmoreland got an extension only until Jan. 5. Eviction was postponed “because of a scheduling conflict in the Marshall’s office,” according to a Rock Group statement.
Siberia is still open, at least till next week. The two sides are due back in court on Wednesday. The Rockefeller Group is considering an office-residential project at the site.