Why Are These Clubs Closing? The Rent Is High, and the Alcohol Isn’t Flowing. - The New York Times


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Paragon Nightclub Closure

Paragon, a popular Brooklyn nightclub, is closing its doors on April 26th, 2025 due to unsustainable financial conditions.

Reasons for Closure

The primary reasons cited for the closure are:

  • High Rent: The cost of operating the venue in its current location has become unaffordable.
  • Declining Alcohol Sales: Insufficient revenue from alcohol sales contributes to the financial challenges.

Despite strong attendance on some nights, the club's owner, John Barclay, emphasizes that weekend success alone is not enough to remain financially viable in the current economic climate.

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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.

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