On the wintry Yonkers waterfront, these would have been the final weeks of a well-designed build-out at the latest business venture of Patrick Joyce Jr. A driven, hands-on entrepreneur with a winning personality and an Irish Catholic upbringing in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, Joyce had planned to open his new restaurant and bar, The Gas Light Ale House, in time for St. Patrick”™s Day.
Instead the prominent establishment at 1Van der Donck St. stands empty and silent behind drawn curtains. Some of the lamplights that ornament its façade tilt in disrepair. A name plaque of the former occupant, Pier View Restaurant, whose owners declared bankruptcy last year, has not yet been taken down. A retail broker this month is close to signing a new tenant for the prime riverfront location beside the City Pier and X2O Xaviars on the Hudson.
The company Joyce formed and led in Manhattan, Westside Hospitality Group, and his restaurant partner in Yonkers chose not to pursue the venture on the waterfront, for which Joyce last summer signed a 10-year lease with Collins Enterprises L.L.C., developer of the adjoining Hudson Park residential complex. For his surviving family and business partners, his absence and the manner in which they lost him are too grievous to start anew in the city he served.
A 39-year-old businessman with a 12-year string of successes at opening restaurant-bars amid the fierce competition of New York City and with a quietly accumulated portfolio of commercial and residential real estate holdings, Joyce also was a veteran of the Yonkers Fire Department”™s Rescue 1 company. On the night of Oct. 2 last year, his rescue team responded to a fire in a three-story, four-family home at 149 Waverly St. An alleged arsonist and former building resident, Rafael Roldan, is accused of setting two fires on the first floor after returning to pick up clothes he had left there after being evicted from a relative”™s apartment.
Joyce and two other firefighters were in a room on the third floor of the burning building. A fire that started in a rear kitchen raced up a staircase “and it blew through a door like a fireball,” said Joyce”™s twin brother, Peter, who also serves with Rescue 1 but was not on duty that night. “They had just seconds to jump out.”
The three-story fall injured two other firefighters. Pat Joyce died on the scene, said his brother. “However he fell, I believe he went quick,” he said.
He died in the arms of veteran Yonkers firefighter Nick Sarro. Sarro in his off-duty hours manages Gianna”™s Restaurant, a popular Italian eatery on Odell Terrace in Yonkers. A Yonkers native, he was to be Joyce”™s partner and manager at The Gas Light Ale House.
“He was the smartest person I ever met,” Sarro said recently at Gianna”™s. He declined to speak further about Joyce and the firefighters”™ shared business interests. Friends and business associates said Joyce”™s death still is too emotionally raw and devastating for Sarro.
Peter Joyce said his twin”™s business career began at 19, when the owner of a glatt kosher catering business, Essen West, made him manager of his Riverdale store. The Irish Catholic product of Fordham Prep balanced his managerial position with full-time business studies at Fordham University.
Joyce, who dropped out of Fordham about 20 credits short of graduation, in the last year talked to his brother about completing work for his bachelor”™s degree, “just to finish up,” said Peter Joyce. He wanted to set an example too for his two daughters, ages 8 and 7.
The young business manager joined the Yonkers Fire Department 16 years ago. “Growing up Irish Catholic, you either grow up to be a firefighter, a cop or a priest,” his brother, with the trace of a smile, said of his choice of vocation. Their older brother, Martin, joined the department two years later. Peter, who in his grief has taken a headquarters staff position since his brother”™s death, joined the Yonkers firefighting ranks 12 years ago.
“We were very community-oriented,” he said. “Like anything else, Pat started it and we kind of followed him.”
The brothers followed Pat Joyce into business 12 years ago, when they and two other partners bought Bliss, a former East Side bar in Manhattan. “From there he just expanded,” Peter Joyce said. With backing from investors, Pat Joyce bought Campus, a two-story bar on West 23rd at Ninth Avenue, whose space he later rented to a bank.
“Then he went on to his biggest venture, ”˜Social,”™” said his brother. Joyce six years ago opened the three-story West Side restaurant, bar and lounge on Eighth Avenue. “He designed and built it out,” his twin brother said. He later bought and redesigned two nearby Hell”™s Kitchen establishments on Eighth Avenue, Latitude, another three-story restaurant, bar and lounge, and Smith”™s Bar.
The build-outs cost from $2 million to $4 million, Peter Joyce said. The West Side properties his brother acquired typically sell for $2 million to $3 million, he said.
“He was hands-on” with the build-outs, said his brother. “With all the competition in New York, the design is very important ”“ the most important and also the hardest part of any business, especially the food business. It”™s a very tough business. Pat really enjoyed it.”
To manage his growing businesses, Joyce formed Westside Hospitality Group, whose headquarters are on 9th Avenue in Hell”™s Kitchen. The company has about 100 full-time employees, said his brother. The Joyces”™ father, Patrick, a former city bus driver, manages one of the company”™s West Side restaurants. Their mother, Kathleen, heads human resources at Westside Hospitality.
Gerry Houilihan, of Houlihan and O”™Malley Real Estate Services in Bronxville, did consulting work for Joyce at his Manhattan businesses. He also brokered the restaurateur”™s waterfront lease in Yonkers. The broker called Joyce “a great operator” who “did numbers in his head” for all his restaurants.
“I was very impressed with how they ran their places,” said Houlihan. “As a consultant, I probably did less for them than for anyone else because they were so well-run.”
While balancing business with his firefighting duties, Joyce kept close weekly track of his bar and restaurant operations, poring over sales records, cost of goods, payroll and the like, said Houlihan. “That”™s what the national chains do, but not usually these mom-and-pop guys,” he said. “He had a good team and he knew how to run his places.”
Peter Joyce said his brother was “very financially astute with numbers. He liked the challenge of a deal.”
“It”™s all in the drive,” he said. “Certain people have it. It”™s something you can”™t teach.”
Joyce said his brother spoke little of his business pursuits at the firehouse. “He was very good at keeping his worlds separate. He”™d sit down at the table with a banker and work out a $5 million deal and then he would go in and put on the uniform and sit and talk with the guys.”
“His businesses were very successful,” he said. “Financially he didn”™t have to continue being a firefighter. He didn”™t go to work for a paycheck. He enjoyed the friendships he made through the job. He enjoyed the camaraderie. He enjoyed working for the people of Yonkers. He truly enjoyed what he did.”
Joyce the businessman expanded to Yonkers three years ago, when Westside Hospitality took over the bar, restaurant and catering facility at Westchester County”™s Dunwoodie Golf Course. Naming it Social at Dunwoodie, an extension of his profitable Manhattan flagship business, Joyce “put in a couple million dollars on that and re-did that room” at the golf course, said his brother.
On the Yonkers waterfront last fall, “He was in the beginning phase of opening up Pier View, which he was very excited about,” said his brother. “Once again, that was him just giving back to Yonkers.”
Joyce”™s widow, Tara, a financial controller at MasterCard Inc. in Purchase, will take over her husband”™s position as president of Westside Hospitality. “They”™re keeping everything,” Peter Joyce said. “The only thing they”™re not going forward with is the Pier View.”
Going forward without the friend, partner, husband and son who started it all is not easy.
On the West Side, “My father waits for him to walk in the bar every day,” said Peter Joyce. “That”™s the tough part.”
