Site Of Donovan’s Pub Up For Sale

Donovan’s Pub. (photo: Sam Goldman) The site of Donovan’s Pub in Woodside is up for sale, and according to its manager, the buyer will have the option of purchasing the bar/restaurant from its current ownership.

According to an online listing, Massey Knakal Realty is asking for $3.2 million for the location, at 57- 14/16 Roosevelt Ave. off 58th Street, encompassing Donovan’s and a nearby clothing shop for a total of 6,300 sq. ft. The dress shop has a lease that expires in October 2013.

Jack Donovan, the bar’s manager, confirmed the listing in a phone interview with the Times Newsweekly late Tuesday night, July 17.

He added that the buyer of the building will have the option to purchase the business and run it; however, the owner will also have the option of having the site be “delivered vacant.”

“This isn’t something that is imminent,” he stated; the process is expected to take at least a year, and no one has emerged as a potential buyer.

He added that owner Joe Donovan, who is in his late 70s, is looking to retire, and that the area’s changing demographics have affected business.

“Everything’s changing in the area,” said Jack Donovan. “It’s not the business that it used to be.”

Donovan’s, a family-owned pub since 1966, is known for its hamburgers. It currently has an A rating from the Department of Health.

The building sits in an R6 zone with a C2-3 overlay, meaning that a developer could build a larger building on the site with a first-floor commercial component.

Donovan’s Bayside location was sold in 2007.