The current owners of Webster Hall offered more details about the closure of the club in a Facebook post early yesterday via Gerard McNamee Jr., director of operations...
Sad but true, the legendary and world-famous Webster Hall has been sold and will close as we know it for its final club night on Saturday August 5th, 2017, which just so happens to be my birthday, which is certainly somehow apropos. It will be closed for an undisclosed period of time for demo, reno and transition to corporate ownership under Barclays/AEG/Bowery Presents. I highly recommend that you all stop by before the end of this era to pay your respects to the Ballingers and the building for providing us with a lifetimes worth of memories.
The Ballinger family has owned and operated Webster Hall since 1989.
Anyway, so the last club night is Aug. 5.
As we noted back in May, the last concert date was listed on Aug. 8 (Michelle Branch: The Hopeless Romantic Tour). A
record release show with Marateck is now on the calendar on Aug. 9 in the Studio. And that's it.
After that, the new owners, Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment along with AEG-backed The Bowery Presents, will begin renovations at the landmarked building on 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.
An EVG reader was at the recent CB3-SLA committee meeting in which Spectrum Catering and Concessions was applying for a new liquor license. (The 25-year-old company provides concessions for a variety of venues and festivals nationwide. In NYC, they manage Terminal 5, the Music Hall of Williamsburg, Rough Trade and Brooklyn Steel.)
Per the reader:
No more club/late night parties.
No more Marlin Room.
Reducing capacity due to the addition of elevators.
Minimum closure of 18 to 24 months starting August 11th
DNAinfo has some background on the liquor license application
here.
Finally,
as noted last Friday, a group of filmmakers, who are also working at the venue, hope to make a documentary on Webster Hall's last month.
Webster Hall
was built in 1886. Alex has a post here yesterday
about when the venue was the Ritz.
Previously on EV Grieve:
The plan to document the last month of Webster Hall's existence
Speculation about Webster Hall's closing date