On a recent Friday night at Paragon, a two-level dance club that sits under train tracks in Bushwick, Brooklyn, partygoers jerked their bodies to the thump of rave music. In the less roomy basement, silhouettes swayed as the flashes of blue from the ceiling’s grid of LED lights revealed young faces.
It was “def a good night for us,” John Barclay, the owner of Paragon, said in a text message the next day.
But a packed dance floor alone does not equal success for a nightclub: “‘A good Friday and Saturday night in 2025 is not enough’ is the easiest way to put it,” Mr. Barclay, a nightlife veteran, added in an interview.
The club is closing April 26: “After almost 3 years of running a venue with some of the world’s best people we simply cannot afford the financial reality of this industry in 2025 and will be closing our doors this April,” the club posted on its social media earlier this year.