New sports bar coming to Park Avenue

A new bar and restaurant is slated to open in the former Avenue Café location on Park Avenue, after the eatery abruptly closed its doors last year.

The Park Sports Bar & Grill is expected to open in September in the 6,500-square-foot space at 20 W. Park Ave., considered prime real estate in Long Beach, according to Garden City-based Sabre Real Estate Group LLC, the firm that arranged the lease.

Opposite the Long Island Rail Road station, the site is known for having the longest bar in Long Beach, along with 30 private parking spaces, with additional parking available on the street and in a nearby municipal lot.

Greg Batista, a director at Sabre, represented the landlord, RJR Realty Group, while Paul Fetscher of Great American Brokerage, represented the restaurant owner.

The Avenue Café opened after Monterey restaurant closed its doors in 2010, but followed in that eatery’s footsteps when the cafe abruptly shut its doors in September.

Before Monterey, the space had formerly been home to restaurant Corbin & Reynolds, and the location has been known for its high-turnover rate. The Avenue Café was paying $16,000 a month in rent alone and the restaurant was struggling to meet its overhead costs amid a tough economy, Long Beach Chamber of Commerce President Mike Kerr told the Herald last year.

Still, Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Mark Tannenbaum said that a sports bar could do well in that location.

“It could do great because of the big bar that they have in there and the immensity of the place,” Tannenbaum said.