NEW YORK CITY — Scores of bar patrons and several local politicians held a rally on Friday to try to save Jimmy's Corner, a Times Square dive bar facing eviction after its landlord, the Durst Organization, told operator Adam Glenn he must leave and put the building up for sale. Glenn filed a lawsuit against Durst last year over the eviction.

Jimmy's Corner was opened in 1971 by former boxer Jimmy Glenn, Adam Glenn's father, at a time when Times Square was known as a hub for prostitution, peep shows and general vice. Adam Glenn took over operation of the bar in 2015. Jimmy Glenn, who often stood outside the bar to keep an eye on the street, died in 2020. Adam Glenn believes his father was close to the Durst family for decades and was tricked into agreeing to a lease provision that enabled Durst to shut down the bar after his death.

The Durst Organization said in a statement: "The building is for sale and is the ideal location for a new housing development. For 50 years, the Durst family maintained a special personal relationship with the bar's original owner, Jimmy Glenn. That's why Durst helped keep the bar's doors open for decades, including through below-market rent." The company also said: "In fact, Durst has not raised the bar's rent in nearly 20 years." Durst also offered Adam Glenn money to vacate. "We have done our best to be good neighbors, and we regret it has come to this," the company said.

New York State Senator Julia Salazar spoke at the rally. "This is just one example of thousands of businesses being forced to close all over the city due to just unsustainable rent increases," Salazar said. She added: "Small businesses are the beating heart of the city. They represent culture. They also employ more than half of the workers in New York state, and it really has a profound ripple effect when a small business is forced to close due to unsustainable costs."

New York State Assembly Member Emily Gallagher also attended. "So often now, New York just feels like a strip mall in Iowa. And there's nothing wrong with Iowa, but it is not New York. Jimmy's is a beloved family-owned bar," Gallagher said.

Inside the narrow bar, which sells beers for $3 each, tabletops are covered with photographs dating back to the 1970s under yellowing laminate, and aging photos of boxers line the walls. A dust-covered Happy Birthday sign hangs behind the long bar, and restrooms are decorated with stickers representing long broken-up bands and long-shuttered bars. Rickety stools provide the seating, and standing patrons often have to tuck in their pints to allow people to pass.

Among the longtime patrons is Thomas P. Walsh, 68, who has been coming to Jimmy's Corner since he was 14. David Gladman, a 73-year-old former executive chef, drank at the bar every day from 1988 to 2012.