Jimmy’s Corner, Boxing Dive, Sues Durst Org. in Bid To Survive

Jimmy’s Corner, the beloved Times Square watering hole founded by the late boxer Jimmy Glenn, is facing eviction by the Durst Organization—and is is taking real estate giant to court.

Glenn, who passed away in 2020, left the bar to his son Adam Glenn. The elder Glenn once ran the since-closed Times Square Boxing Club on W. 42nd St., and once fought against soon-to-be heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson. “He beat me,” Glenn told a boxing blog in 2005. “Knocked me down a few times, broke my tooth. But I went the distance.”

Raised by his grandfather, who was once a sharecropper, Glenn established Jimmy’s Corner at 140 W. 44th St. in the early 1970s. He reportedly maintained a close relationship with Seymour Durst, the second-generation head of the development behemoth, which the Durst Organization has repeatedly acknowledged.

Yet things have reportedly soured between the younger Glenn and the Dursts, according to court records reviewed by Straus News. A lawyer representing the bar alleges that the Durst Organization may be inventing a lease clause out of whole cloth to justify the establishment’s eviction, in order to sell the lot. The developer does not deny that they are seeking to flip the site.

“For decades, we did everything we could to help keep the bar’s doors open including providing extremely favorable rent,” a spokesperson for the organization told Straus News in a statement. “After Jimmy’s tragic death, we decided to sell the building, and we went above and beyond our lease obligations due to the personal relationship with Jimmy.”

“We told Adam Glenn over a year ago he would have to vacate the building, we offered him $250,000 even though we were not required to do so, and allowed the bar to remain open longer. These efforts have not been met with good faith,” they added.

The suit filed against the Durst Organization makes a different argument, beginning with the claim that the elder Glenn was duped into signing a lease that would allow the bar to be sold off so readily. “James Glenn...had no formal education beyond the seventh grade,” a lawyer for Adam Glenn argues, noting that this “limited” education” entailed that he “could not review documents.”

These documents, the suit alleges, simply included a “demolition clause” that would allow the Dursts to kick the bar out “only...when absolutely necessary.” Yet the suit continues that the Dursts are not utilizing said demolition clause as a justification for eviction, but instead are using a clause that “allowed for [lease] cancellation upon the death of James Glenn.”

Such a clause, the suit claims, was not provided by the Durst Organization–despite being reportedly “requested” on “several occasions.” The suit also argues that the older Glenn would never “accept any provision that would rob his family of their livelihood and legacy.”

The lawsuit also makes explosive claims that the Dursts could be pursuing eviction due to racist animus against the bar’s Black patrons. Bar management had reportedly been “advised by a representative of the [Durst Organization] that some other tenants...at or near the premises had complained that a significant number of [Jimmy’s Corner] patrons were black men.”

The bar had reportedly received complaints that said men were “entering in and out of the premises during business hours...and would congregate at or near the entrance...in order to smoke.” The suit adds that the bar “draws a diverse crowd, straddling all racial, national, and socio-economic lines,” and that patrons of all races “exhibit the exact same behavior” that black patrons were solely singled out for.

Outside of attempting to void the eviction proceedings, which began on Dec. 2, the suit seeks a “termination payment” for the younger Glenn if the building is sold; the $250,000 reportedly offered by the Durst Organization appears to be a response to this claim.