Applicants and neighbors clashed at Community Board 2’s SLA committee over plans to reactivate an outdoor courtyard adjacent to the historic Astra Place theater.

Max Bookman, counsel for Sweet Hospitality Group, and EJ Marotta, the applicant president, told the committee they had withdrawn a prior full-liquor application and would file for a beer-and-wine theater license while seeking permission to use the courtyard only for ticketed theatergoers. “We are instead going to be filing a beer and wine license application,” Bookman said, adding the use would be limited to ticketed patrons and tied to show hours.

Bookman described operational limits intended to reduce neighborhood impacts: courtyard access restricted to ticketed guests, service beginning one hour before a show and ending one hour after, no music outdoors, sound‑damping materials and plantings, ushers to monitor the 70‑person courtyard capacity, and an offer that there be no post‑show courtyard use. “We’re willing to offer that compromise — before show, yes; intermission, yes; but after any show, no,” Bookman told the committee.

Residents and nearby tenants pushed back. Vittorio Chipoli, one of several neighbors who spoke during public comment, said he could not find a certificate of occupancy authorizing courtyard use and urged caution. “I cannot seem to locate any certificate of occupancy that discusses really any courtyard use,” he said. Other neighbors described the courtyard’s proximity to apartment windows and warned that even nonalcoholic gatherings of dozens could disturb residents late at night.

Questions centered on outstanding Department of Buildings (DOB) approvals and enforceability. Applicants said they had filed DOB paperwork and received objections that were being addressed; Bookman said the applicant’s architect and DOB expediter believed amendments were feasible. On sound mitigation, the applicants cited sound‑damping floors, walls and furniture and said a sound consultant had been consulted.

Committee members pressed for specifics that could be enforced by stipulation or the SLA. Several requested written DOB confirmations, clarified plans for ingress/egress between theater and courtyard, and an explicit mechanism for enforcing the proposed 70‑person limit. Applicants said ushers with counting devices would control courtyard entry during events.

The committee did not take a final vote on a license but indicated it would discuss the item further in the business session and that any support would be conditional on clearer DOB documentation and enforceable stipulations. Applicants said they would return with additional paperwork and that, for the current season, they would not serve alcohol outdoors and would accept objective, time‑based constraints.