Historic East Village Venue Webster Hall Closing in August

It’s another end of an era in perennially gentrifying New York City.

Historic East Village venue Webster Hall has announced it will shutter to undergo a two-year renovation after a final show on August 5. The news was announced via a Facebook post by Gerard McNamee, the club’s director of operations.

The landmark venue, which was built in 1886 and has played host to Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra to LCD Soundsystem and Wu-Tang Clan, was sold in April for approximately $35 million to Brooklyn Sports Entertainment, the company behind the Barclays Center and Bowery Presents. It is expected for the building to reopen in late 2019/early 2020 as Spectrum Hall and be strictly a concert and sports facility.

Here is McNamee’s statement in its unedited entirety:

“Ladies and Gentlemen/Friends and Family:

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. There are only 12 club nights left. Please come celebrate our rich 25 year history of being the biggest, baddest and longest running nightclub in the history of New York City.”

Image via Facebook