Brooklyn Mirage

Photo Credit: Brooklyn Mirage (Instagram)

The Brooklyn Mirage is slated for demolition following ongoing financial issues and a failed return over the summer.

East Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s Brooklyn Mirage, a 32,000-square-foot concert hall, has filed for demolition after ongoing financial distress led to a botched reopening over the summer. The open-air venue is part of the 80,000-square-foot Avant Gardner complex, which also hosts The Great Hall and Kings Hall, indoor venues that both have shows scheduled through December 6.

The venue’s “full” demolition is expected to cost $1.5 million, according to The Real Deal. Avant Gardner, the venue’s parent company, said in July that it intended to sell the Brooklyn Mirage after it failed to meet an inspection deadline ahead of its planned reopening in May following major renovations.

Just days before its anticipated opening, the Department of Buildings revoked the venue’s temporary occupancy certificate. The opening event would have featured headliners like Sara Landry, Alesso, and Peggy Gou.

According to Brooklyn Paper, the agency cited numerous safety and technical issues, including inadequate accessibility requirements, toilets, and automatic fire sprinklers. Ultimately, the parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August, calling the Brooklyn Mirage’s closure “catastrophic” for company finances.

“The decision to file for Chapter 11 relief follows several months of financial distress, culminating with Avant Gardner being unable to open its newly constructed Mirage event space for the 2025 season,” the company said in a statement, in which it also made clear that it was determined to regain footing and “bring the Mirage back for 2026 and beyond.” But that evidently won’t pan out.

According to bankruptcy records, the venue owes various vendors over $10 million, including $1.8 million to the DJ Black Coffee Entertainment from South Africa. Avant Gardner is now reportedly selling off its assets to an “affiliate” of the company’s lender; the company has at most $100 million in assets, and up to $500 million in liabilities. A hearing for the sale is scheduled for October 22.

The Brooklyn Mirage also faced a decent amount of bad press over the last couple of years, when a pair of concertogers were found dead near the venue in 2023. The unrelated cases both involved concertgoers who wandered away from the venue, which is located in an isolated area.