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Raise your glass – The late Ledger’s bar, to open

A long-rumored bar tied to the late actor Heath Ledger is becoming a reality.

As the entertaining summer blockbuster “The Dark Night,” starring Ledger in the role of The Joker, amassed a record-breaking total of more than $314.2 million in its first 10 days in theaters, the estate of the actor released funds for the construction of a nautical-themed bistro called Five Leaves.

Ledger, a former Cobble Hill resident who died January in Manhattan, was a silent partner in the investment of the bar, located on 18 Bedford Avenue, near Lorimer streets, just off of McCarren Park.

While Ledger’s death put the completion of the project in doubt, his father, Kim Ledger, who serves as executor of his estate, released the necessary funds earlier this month to finish the construction.

Well-known interior designer John McCormick, who also has designed Smith and Mills in Tribeca, the popular Williamsburg café Moto, and The Beatrice Inn in the West Village, helped launch the Greenpoint bar with several other partners. According to New York Magazine, McCormick was also working with Jud Long, a bartender at DuMont, Williamsburg’s upscale burger joint, in planning Five Leaves’ décor.

The bar remained locked over the weekend, but construction has recently resumed and the owners hope to open the bar later this year.

Across the street at Loka, a bistro that often caters to neighborhood residents and concert-goers at the McCarren Park Pool, an owner was encouraged that construction of Five Leaves would be underway.

The owner, who did not want to reveal his name, said that he was friendly with the owners of Five Leaves and deeply sympathetic over the death of the young actor. While the summer concert series will be ending at McCarren Pool later this month, he believed that the opening of the bar would bring more traffic to the Nassau Avenue area north of the park.