D. spotted the signs first and caught the flyer above from one of the applicants: A cafe/restaurant/lounge called Goody’s has applied for a liquor license at 9 Barclay, the former Wooly space — they did not say they were a nightclub, but they came to the committee last week asking for hours till 2a on weekdays, 4a on weekends, DJs and live music. (D. said the folks he met said they are taking the Five & Dime space as well, on the Park Place side of the building.)

The lawyer for the applicant said the cafe part will open for breakfast starting at 8a, and the business needs the late hours in order to make a profit. He said he gathered 1000 signatures mostly from neighbors within a two-block radius as well as a letter of support from the Woolworth Building condo board. And he said the area needs the business — he called Broadway “seedy” and that the Woolworth Building approached the applicants (I couldn’t tell what their experience was…) to help the area “recover.”

“They need to stay open late or they will fail and bottom-out like the other businesses did in that space,” he said.

The folks who spoke in favor of the applicant — they seemed to all live on the other side of City Hall Park — said that Tribeca has become too quiet and desolate late at night — it feels like Wall Street, one said.

The Wooly was closed by April 2021. It opened in that space in 2017.

The space is nearly 5000 square feet with a capacity of 240 total — the dining area is 2100 square feet and the bar area is 900. The application said there will be live music and DJs.

The community board members said the applicant has no experience in New York City.

This does remind me when the owner of Flashdancers applied for a liquor license for a sports bar at 41 Murray — a building he owns. He said then, in 2021, that he needed the late hours — till 4a — to turn a profit. When the CB1 Licensing Committee turned him down, he dropped his plans. That space stayed empty until he rented it to Boss Tweeds in 2023.

The committee said they would go with Sunday to Wednesday till midnight; Thursday to Saturday they were willing to go till 2a.

“We have done everything this board continuously asks applicants to do,” the lawyer said. “To ask us for midnight, that is going to fail. That is not what the Woolworth Building is looking to help vitalize things.”