Update: Radio Bushwick Owner Says Landlord Is To Blame For Closure
This morning we spoke with Tari Sunkin, the owner of Radio Bushwick. She gave us the story behind the Department of Buildings’ records we found yesterday which detailed several complaints and violations at the venue’s 22 Wyckoff Avenue address and the subsequent closing of Radio Bushwick, which she confirmed was temporary, just before several lineups for CMJ week.
Sunkin detailed a longtime dispute with her landlord, Jamie Wiseman (principal of Cayuga Capital Management)—a man she characterizes as notorious around the neighborhood for tenant harassment and failing to live up to landlord responsibilities. The dispute began, Sunkin says, when Wiseman failed to file papers to rezone the building from a manufacturing space to a retail space. “It was understood that it would be my responsibility to change it from retail to restaurant,” she said. “But my landlord never changed it to retail. That’s why it took me three years to open, and he had one last piece of paperwork to do and he didn’t do it.”