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Ciprianis told to vacate Rainbow Room

NEW YORK The operators of the Rainbow Room here were told Friday by their landlord that their lease on the well-known Rockefeller Center establishment would be terminated for failing to pay millions of dollars in rent on the famed banquet hall and ballroom, according to officials familiar with the situation.

The Cipriani family, which has managed the Rainbow Room for the past 10 years, has vowed to fight the eviction notice, saying it would go to court Monday to try to block the lease termination. Under the terms of lease with landlord Tishman Speyer Properties, the Ciprianis have three days to vacate the space, according to published reports.

Tishman Speyer officials claim that the Ciprianis have not paid their rent since September 2008, according to The New York Times.

The latest move caps months of fighting between the Ciprianis and their landlord over the space and comes just days after the Ciprianis said they would temporarily close the Rainbow Grill restaurant next to the Rainbow Room because of a lease dispute and the economic downturn. At the time the Ciprianis had said that the ballroom and banquet rooms would remain open.

“Today, Tishman Speyer purported to serve Cipriani with a frivolous notice of termination of the lease for the historic Rainbow Room in retaliation for Cipriani’s victory in an arbitration concerning a rent dispute,” Ben Branham, a spokesman for the Ciprianis, said Friday. “Tishman Speyer attempted to charge an outrageous amount of rent that no tenant could afford, consistent with their campaign to force Cipriani out of the space, which would deprive more than 300 workers of their livelihood. This is all part of Tishman Speyer’s plan to convert the iconic Rainbow Room to office space and avert Landmark designation.”

According to a report in the New York Daily News, the rent for the space has been raised to $8.7 million per year.

The Ciprianis plan to continue operations at the Rainbow Room despite the legal action, Branham said.

“Cipriani will continue to operate the Rainbow Room as contemplated by the lease, which by its terms expires in 2013,” he said. “We fully anticipate that we will prevail against these frivolous actions.”

Tishman officials stated that they have no plans to close the Rainbow Room and would seek new operators for the space, according to published reports.

New York chef-restaurateur Waldy Malouf, who was executive chef of the Rainbow Grill in the 1980s when Joe Baum and David Emil managed the facility, called the Rainbow Room “a wonderful New York Institution.”

“It’d be sad to lose it,” he said.

Malouf, now the co-owner and executive chef of the upscale Beacon restaurant in midtown Manhattan, noted that “thousands of people celebrate special occasions there; they got engaged there, married there. It’s a very special place -- sort of the crown of Rockefeller Center.”

In recent years, the Ciprianis have faced a number of legal problems. Among them, in 2007 some family members pleaded guilty to charges related to tax evasion and agreed to pay $10 million in penalties and restitution.

The Rainbow Room, which opened in 1934, is located on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

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