Around 100 patrons of the Jimmy’s Corner tavern rallied in Midtown Friday to save the beloved boxing bar from being evicted from the building by their landlords.
The fans of the famous Times Square watering hole gathered near the Sixth Avenue offices of the Durst Organization in an effort to convince them not to deliver the knockout blow to the legacy of boxer and fight trainer Jimmy Glenn, who owned bar from 1971 until he passed away in 2020.
“We add value to these communities and right now we’re fighting,” said Glenn’s son, Adam, 44, who gathered with a crowd of supporters holding protest signs laid out in classic boxing poster style.
“We are fighting the Dursts and we are in front of their offices because they are trying to take our home. So we bring the fight to their doorstep.”
The protest is the latest escalation in the fight between Jimmy’s Corner and the Durst group, which is looking to evict the West 44th Street institution and one of the last classic New York dive bars still selling $3 beer near the Crossroads of the World.
The younger Glenn sued the real estate giant in December, contending that they have a right to stay until 2029, but the landlords are looking to declare the lease void because of his father’s death, an act he described as a blow below the belt.
“The matter is, they think they sit above the community,” he said. “They don’t think that they’re a part of this anymore. Back then, they were. The reason that we even started the relationship, the reason that this hurt so much, is that these were friends.”
The Durst organization, however, countered that it had not raised rent for the bar in nearly 20 years — and that the deal was only because they considered themselves in the corner of the elder Glenn, who was a friend of the late Seymour Durst. But now times have changed — and they resent being made to look like they fixed the fight.
“For 50 years, the Durst family maintained a special personal relationship with the bar’s original owner, Jimmy Glenn. That’s why Durst helped keep the bar’s doors open for decades, including through below-market rent. In fact, Durst has not raised the bar’s rent in nearly 20 years,” a spokesperson for Durst said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, no good deed goes unpunished.”
Despite the back and forth between the sides, the patrons gathered Friday only wanted their beloved watering hole saved.
“I think humans have to realize that certain things are way more important than money. Certain places are just powerful. They’re legendary. They keep people together,” said Michael Boucher, a bartender from Brooklyn.
Melvin Jones, 59, had been flocking to Jimmy’s Corner from Westchester “on and off” for the past three decades.
“This is a landmark, historical landmark. Once history has gone, that’s it,” said Jones, a security guard.
“Everybody’s treated fairly. I’ve literally been in there when I’ve seen people in tuxedos from the theater, and I’ve also seen construction workers, or seen bikers,” Jones said.
As of Friday, Durst’s position made it look like a long shot that the bar would be saved by the bell.
“After Jimmy Glenn’s death, Durst decided to sell the building and went above and beyond lease obligations due to the personal relationship with Jimmy,” they said in their statement. “Adam Glenn, a Harvard educated lawyer, was told in November 2024 that the bar would have to vacate the building, and he was subsequently offered $250,000, even though such payment and courtesy advance notice were not a requirement of the lease.
“We have done our best to be good neighbors, and we regret it has come to this.”
The bar still looks very much as it did when Glenn, who was a Hall of Fame boxing trainer, opened it in the 1970s — its narrow walls stuffed with memorabilia from the sweet science and a sign warning patrons that talking politics was banned, a rule the imposing Glenn personally enforced.
Glenn rented from Seymour Durst until the real estate magnate’s death in 1995, when his son Douglas Durst — another friend — took over, according to the lawsuit.
The Durst Organization then allegedly took advantage of an aging Glenn in 2019 and hashed out a new lease that allowed the company to terminate the relationship with his death, the lawsuit states. Durst allegedly waited until 2025 to evict the bar, arguing the lease was void long before its stated end in 2029.
The younger Glenn said the massive community showing proves Jimmy’s Corner was vital to the neighborhood.
“We don’t have that much of it left in New York, so we have to fight for what we want,” he said.
