A Throggs Neck landlord for over 30 years says he has been getting “hate mail” after the closing of a favorite local watering hole.
Cosmo Montemurro wants to set the record straight: He was not the one who closed Paddy Doherty’s Ale House on E. Tremont Avenue.
“The owners closed themselves down and boarded it up. I didn’t close them down,” said Montemurro.
He said the tenant of the bar signed a 10-year lease eight years ago.
“When times got tough, they were having a tough time paying the rent,” Montemurro said. “I reduced the rent, but they still couldn’t pay the reduced rent.”
Montemurro said he received the hate mail during a three-month period when the tenants were not paying any rent.
“I always try to help my tenants,” Montemurro said. “I am not a greedy landlord.”
Montemurro said he believes the tenants overextended themselves when they opened a second tavern on Pennyfield Avenue.
“I think that’s when they created their own demise by splitting their clientele,” he said. “That took away some of their own business from East Tremont during the summer months.”
Montemurro said he doesn’t feel it is fair that he is portrayed as a greedy landlord.
“It is not right,” he said. “I don’t know where people get their information, I didn’t raise the rent and I didn’t close them down. The tenants have locked in their clientele at their second location and I am stuck with an empty place.”
The owner of Paddy Doherty’s Ale House has declined comment at this time.
