Noise and Vibration Worries Prompt CB1 Rejection of Karaoke Bar License

Left: At a September CB1 committee meeting, neighbors said they worried about potential noise and vibrations from Gunbae, the karaoke bar and Korean restaurant under construction at 67 Murray Street. Right: Gunbae co-owner Andy Lau said the establishment would work with acoustical experts to dampen the noise. CB1 ultimately denied Gunbae's license at an October general meeting. Photos: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Community Board 1 turned its thumbs down on a karaoke bar planned for Murray Street in Tribeca.

After contentious discussions at two Community Board 1 committee meetings [1], where several neighbors said they worried about noise and vibrations from multiple karaoke rooms, the full board voted on Oct. 28 to reject the liquor license application for the 74-seat Korean BBQ and karaoke bar under construction at 67 Murray St. The decision is advisory to the State Liquor Authority.

Even with second and third chances, the board agreed, the owners of the restaurant, Gunbae, failed to give them what they asked for––detailed soundproofing plans for the karaoke rooms planned for the basement, below the restaurant.

When the restaurant’s owners and attorney first came before CB1’s Tribeca Committee in September, nearby residents said they feared that their walls would shake, as they had when previous bars, Grady’s and Lilly O’Briens, had occupied the space.

The committee declined to vote on the application at that September meeting, saying that they wanted the management to return in October with soundproofing plans.

They did return, bringing with them acoustical expert Tom Kaytt from Cerami & Associates, who laid out steps the restaurant could take to solve potential noise and vibration problems.

But the committee wasn’t satisfied. Wanting assurances that the work would actually get done, they passed a resolution approving the liquor license application provided that the owners submit more complete, specific soundproofing plans prior to the board’s general meeting in two weeks.

But the plans––submitted the day before the general meeting––still were incomplete, according to Peter Braus, the chair of the committee. The board, claiming the owners failed to comply, turned down the committee resolution approving the license and voted on a new one to reject it.

“They were underprepared,” Braus said. “They did not have plans that accurately reflected what they wanted to do.”

According to committee member Jeff Ehrlich, one proposal in the plans said that a particular soundproofing measure could reduce the noise by between 30 and 55 decibels. That range is too wide and not specific enough, he said.

Ehrlich added that the board cannot force Gunbae to hire Cerami, specifically, but he wanted to know for certain that the owners would actually follow through on their soundproofing plans.

Co-owner Raymond Cho told The Trib in a phone interview that he wasn’t given enough time to submit the full plans.

“They gave us only a two-week period,” he said. “It was a little bit of a tight schedule to submit the noise control report from the company we hired, which is Cerami.”

Ehrlich argued that the management was given plenty of time to get its plans together.

“This was our second committee meeting we had them come back,” he explained. “And then we said, well look, you could come back, you still have a chance if you could present us with what we’re asking before the board meeting. And this is what we were presented with.”

Lack of clarity about the number of karaoke rooms also prompted the board to reject the license. Although the restaurant’s attorney said at the October committee meeting that the number would be reduced from the seven, proposed in September, to four, Ehrlich said the plans he received the day before the meeting still included seven.

Cho told The Trib that there must have been some confusion.

“I did submit two blueprints which showed revised rooms, that had four rooms there,” he said. “Maybe it wasn’t printed out during the meeting.”

In hopes of a better outcome––and to finally clear up what he maintains is confusion over his plans––Cho said he wants to return to the board.

“I think there’s a lot of clarification that needs to be made,” he said. “I’m going to have to talk to my attorney about how we can approach this [and come] back to them."

Gunbae will appear once again before the Tribeca committee on Nov. 12 for a reconsideration and possible resolution.