When AEG Presents and the owners of Brooklyn, NY’s Barclays Center (Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment) purchased Manhattan nightlife staple Webster Hall earlier this year, they announced plans to spend roughly $10 million sometime in the near future renovating the multi-floor venue’s Grand Ballroom, Studio room, and Marlin Room in hopes of bringing them up to contemporary standards and adding a few more customer features. Now, the East Village venue has announced that its final night before it closes down for an extended period of time upgrades. The venue has planned a series of “Final Shows,” which include gigs with Rag N’ Bone Man, Good Charlotte, and more scheduled to perform and “goodbye nights” for its regular weekly party nights. The last listed performance in the Grand Ballroom is singer-songwriter Michelle Branch on August 8th, while the following night’s Marateck record release show in The Studio is the final overall performance on the Webster docket.
AEG Presents And Barclays Center Owners To Purchase NYC’s Webster Hall
When it reopens, the venue’s booking will be handled by Bowery Presents, which was also acquired by AEG last year. According to Timeout New York, “Webster Hall has had many different forms since the first theater was built on the site in 1886. In the 1980s, it operated as storied club the Ritz, and since the ’90s has been run by the Ballinger family. As one of the biggest independent venues in city, Webster Hall has always had a kind of grimy charm. It’s unclear how much of that will change with the new iteration, but you may want to say your goodbyes.”
Gerard McNamee Jr., the general manager of the venue’s weekly Saturday club night, GOTHAM, comment on the venue’s indefinite closing in a post on his Facebook page:
While we’ll miss the appropriately labeled “grimy charm” of Webster Hall in its current form, we can’t wait to see what upgrades the venue’s new owners make!
[h/t – Timeout New York]