West Village neighbors making racket over streetwear company's rooftop ‘padel ball' plans

Yahoo

08-03-2025

West Village residents are raising a racket over a posh rooftop bar and padel courts that developers, including Kith streetwear founder Ronnie Fieg, want to bring to their quiet neighborhood.
The $1.6 million proposal calls for a private members club on the top floor and roof of a nine-story commercial building at 120 Leroy St. — complete with a restaurant from the owners of East Village mainstay Cafe Mogador, a spa, bar, and three rooftop padel courts.
The owners plan to host padel — the name for paddle ball in Mexico — tournaments and up to 20 annual private parties with a DJ, according to the filings with the State Liquor Authority, galling neighbors worried about 'popping gunshots sounds' and blinding bright lights.
Padel is a cross between tennis and squash and has dethroned pickleball as the latest racket sport craze to take over the city. It's played with a tennis ball and a solid paddle, in an enclosed court with glass walls similar to squash. Unlike pickleball, which is played with a perforated plastic ball, the hard tennis ball used in padel travels at a faster pace hitting the ground and walls.
'It's kind of unprecedented to have this kind of thing in the middle of a residential area,' said neighbor Scott Bird, who is among the chorus of locals blasting the project.
'We all moved into this neighborhood because it was quiet and charming. There isn't a rooftop bar within a mile of here. This is just wild.'
'What they're putting up there is a nightclub,' raged neighbor Charles Dunne.
'It just does not belong in the middle of this residential neighborhood,' added Liz Beggar, who lives across the street.
Joining Fieg — whose brand helped him get named first-ever creative director of the Knicks — in the venture is Midtown Equities, the privately held real estate investment firm of the Cayre family, which acquired Soho House in the Meatpacking District in 2012 and is behind the private members club Casa Cipriani in lower Manhattan.
The project needs a liquor license, but a lease was signed and work in the building, owed by luxe real estate firm Centaur Properties, has already started.
The plan first came before Community Board 2 in May, and they rejected it 33-1, but their vote is only advisory.
Local pols backed up the board, urging the SLA not to grant the liquor license.
'This application's proposed rooftop bar and lounge would significantly increase the noise level experienced by these residents on a daily basis and late into the evening,' state Senator Brian Kavanagh and Assemblymember Deborah Glick.
It's unclear what the total cost would be. According to DOB filings, the preliminary construction and plumbing work alone comes with a price tag of $1.6 million.
The SLA will weigh the matter at its next full board meeting March 13 at its NYC office in Harlem.
Fieg, Midtown Equities and Centaur have not returned requests for comment.