It could have been bought by Starbucks, but maybe not converted into one. All in all, I wish they just removed that joke and explain it was structurally unsound and needed big money to fix.
I don’t know if it was ever meant as a joke, but I thought it worked well as a misdirection… I was fooled and felt a pang of disappointment at the thought they’d lost the Firehouse… Until I saw those familiar apparatus bay doors and white/green tilework appear… And then I was grinning like an idiot. 
I know I’m probably applying too much real world logic to it (it’s a family bad habit :P), but it really having been turned into a Starbucks just doesn’t work for me… But I’ve said my piece.
I guess if they’d had more time to work with (and we know it was a late-in-the-day addition to Afterlife, based on the behind-the-scenes photos showing the crew wearing face masks) that they would’ve added some set dressing like cafe tables and signage to signify what’d happened to the place.
I guess with some reshoots and reworking the script at additional times, they forgot to go over it with a fine tooth comb.
I mean this is RAY, did you not see how much he fell in love with the firehouse? He’s still in NY right? Why would he believe someone saying it, and not seeing it for himself. Maybe too much heartbreak. That’s what I’m going with right now, rather than a gap in continuity.
Someone should have really given this a good going-over with.
Here’s ANOTHER burning question:
At the end Trevor races to the deceased remains of the terror dog and RIPS OFF THE HEAD of one of them. How did they know they did that? What if it didn’t crumble? How did they know the person was still inside.
He drove Phoebe and Podcast close to the mountain temple so he would have seen them trap Zuul and Callie being released. He was there to see Lucky being turned into a Terror Dog. He ran to the husks and I assume he saw Vinz’s husk move or heard Gary calling for help since he was so up close to it.
Perhaps he didn’t know, but risked the chance in case it might work?
Perhaps Starbucks did buy it…but due to the equipment in the basement the management went “yeah maybe this location isn’t for us” and put it back up for lease…afterall there are starbucks closing as of late. Some in my neck of the woods did.
Pretty sure they would’ve made that decision before they’d signed the paperwork, you don’t buy a house without checking the pipes and electrics are all sound. 
Ya mean like buying one location and then opening one on the opposite corner? Thanks but I’ll keep the “genius” of Starbucks to overpriced coffee and not real estate.
I thought the Starbucks line was just a joke. Like Ray was kidding around with Podcast cause that’s like a running joke in general. That everything gets turned into a Starbucks nowadays.
As for Egon and what happened with the team I find it hard to accept. Especially Ray not believing Egon cause he’s so into the supernatural. He owns a bookstore on it. This is really my only issue.
I wish it was done a little differently. Like maybe Egon was threatened by a ghost or something and felt he had to do it alone so he mysteriously left. It would go along with becoming reclusive.
So far I’ve only seen it once in theaters but it leaves Ray in a bad light imo.
Ray saying: “Egon Spengler can burn in hell” was just a Rian Johnson to me. Added only to shock an audience, with no inherent creative value.
I understand that from a relatively cheap “shock without content” directing point of view.
But Ray later saying: “there’s a lot of mountains with ancient carvings, take a little advice, don’t go chasing ghosts” showed that the script writer really had no clue about Ray’s character as written in the prior movies.
Well it’s not just that. Ray not trusting his judgment and then apparently not calling or going over to check things out.
I can see Peter and Winston having doubts or moving on to other things with the business struggling but it’s very out of character for Ray imo.
Egon became a thief, robbing the Ghostbusters and Ray stopped believing in supernatural threats.
Two very believable concepts if you know anything about Ghostbusters at all right?
Like the 2 very first things you would think of, to base the story of your entire Ghostbusters movie on.
Right?
I’m gonna throw my two cents in.
I’m going to assume that Ray saw it turned into a Starbucks, but maybe it didn’t last long, and Ray never heard anything about it.
Second, and this is a big one, I want to know: Just when did Egon start suspecting Gozer’s eventual return in the first place? How did he discover her possible return? It seems weird that he suddenly went into prophet mode for no particular reason, unless something came to his attention.
Yeah, TVG would have been a good way to seed the reason why he looked into Gozerian mythos again. But can’t be helped.
I suspect the content in the journal with the HasLab Proton Pack might answer why.
If there’s nothing in “Ghostbusters 4”/“Ghostbusters: Firehouse” indicating it was turned into a Starbucks beyond Ray’s line, then I think we can quietly retcon as it never having actually been turned into a Starbucks*, given the absence of any cafe equipment or furniture, and the presence of an active Containment Unit.
*Rationalising it off as either Ray misheard, or he simply spun that line to discourage Phoebe.
The Starbucks thing is easy enough to recon either way: Winston bought it back and wanted everything from Starbucks out.
But the containment unit being left in there unattended was still crazy. And it didn’t look like there was power. That alone should of caused an explosion and set all the spooks loose. I know lights were blinking in the credit scene, but didn’t make any sense from what we know from GB1.
I’m thinking it’s along the lines of what Kingpin mentioned ( to discourage Phoebe) but it’s possible Ray gave up on the Business when Egon left and rigged up a power source to keep the Containment Unit going and sealed the basement up so nobody would find it.
Ray could’ve left the FireHouse abandoned until he reunited with Winston and Peter?Ray then handed it all over to Winston after he acquiring to reopen? Despite Winston’s fortune maybe didn’t need buy it back but he’s investing his money into the reopening?
A little off track but maybe not, just feel like this needs to be said again…Some of you guys have been lucky enough to never have an ugly falling out with a close friend and it shows. It’s never the ones you expect. I buy all of the fallout between Egon and Ray.
Imagine starting a business with your closest friends, living and working together almost 24/7. People change over time, priorities change. With Egon gone, I can’t imagine Ray wanting to keep the place running and I can’t imagine Venkman and Zeddemore would’ve disagreed.
Unless the sequel elaborates more on it, I did ask Eric Reich about it back in January and he confirmed the Firehouse “was a Starbucks, Winston bought it after the battle in Summerville.”
Also it’s not really specified how long it was a Starbucks. There is some wiggle room. That location might have floundered and Starbucks bailed on that location and the property was left abandoned for x amount of time. Or if it was still operating, Winston’s rich. He had Starbucks hauled out asap while the Ecto-1 was on it’s way back to New York.
I agree with Glenn’s idea about the basement as well. That’s one I thing I keep forgetting to rewatch from GB1 to see which light is blinking in the Afterlife tag. Is that the one that confirms if the field is neutronized or not?