Back in January 2005, soon after Oscar Plotkin had moved into his newly renovated townhouse at 1 Harrison Street, rumor quickly spread among regulars that it meant the demise—or upscale evisceration—of Puffy’s, the old neighborhood bar on the ground floor that now belonged to him.

Those fears were allayed, weeks later, when the tavern reopened minus the ancient juke box, 1945 silver cash register and endearing grime, but otherwise largely unchanged.

Now Plotkin, president of Berkshire Development, a major Massachusetts-based box store and warehouse developer, has put the 89-year-old building up for sale. Once again, stories are circulating that it’s last call for Puffy’s.

“Enjoy living in this quintessential home while collecting substantial income from the ground floor, which is currently on a month to month lease,”  says the Halstead property listing.

But Plotkin 55, told the Trib that he intends to “sustain [Puffy’s] into perpetuity if possible.”

“If I sell the building, I will do all I can to inspire a successor owner to sustain it,” he said. “Since the bar is doing so well, one would imagine that a new owner would keep the bar on its own merit.” When a buyer comes forward, he added,  “I will tell the story. That’s the best I can do in these strange times.”

The recession has hit his company hard, Plotkin said, and he is reluctantly exploring the market to see what his unusual property, at the corner of Hudson and Harrison Streets, will fetch.

“In the world of real estate, the values have diminished tremendously,” he said, “and I need to probe the value.” The asking price is $5.95 million.
Plotkin bought the building in 2004. Newly divorced, he had been living in the St. Regis and Mercer hotels before moving into the white terracotta building.

“Where do you find a 3,000-square-foot building with a very cool bar downstairs, on a major corner of New York?” he told the Trib in 2005.
Plotkin said he rarely visits his downstairs business, but he boasts that under his managers the tavern has gone “from a total loss to a substantial gain.”

Puffy’s has operated as a bar, first called Jimmy’s, since 1945, when it served breakfast and booze to the nocturnal workers of the Washington Market.

Aware of the bar’s place in the neighborhood’s history, Plotkin said he will do what he can to preserve it.

“Morally,” he said, “it needs to be done.”