On a recent night inside a vast brick warehouse on Manhattan’s West Side Highway, revellers gathered beneath glowing LED lights. Cocktails flowed. Disco balls glittered. Hips swiveled. One cowboy-clad guest even saucily swung a lasso overhead.
Despite all the fun, it was a relatively tame scene considering the building’s raucous past: beginning in 1986, it housed the city’s most influential (and infamous) nightclubs, Tunnel, so named for its original use as a railway terminal in the 19th century. Over the course of its 15-year run, Tunnel became a staple of ‘90s-era New York nightlife for its anything-goes confluence of celebrities and subcultures. On any given night, you might share a communal urinal with Club Kids; get weird in a ‘cosmic cavern’ with fur-clad walls; or catch a performance from a local hip-hop legend such as The Notorious B.I.G. or DMX.
Tunnel shuttered in 2001, due to financial woes, run-ins with the law and pressure from the Giuliani administration. In June 2025, though, following a years-long renovation helmed by CookFox, the 1.3 million sq ft colossus reopened as a mixed-use commercial building. One of its anchor tenants is The Mallory, an expansive new venue operated by Convene Hospitality Group.
Unlike its ‘90s predecessor, The Mallory, which opened in October, is available for large private events, be it a wedding, a corporate celebration or a conference for up to 550 guests. As such, the 50,000 sq ft, three-story facility was designed with flexibility in mind, from lighting and speaker rigs, to modular furniture to multiple kitchens to industrial, sliding partitions. ‘We definitely wanted to go deeper into the hospitality approach,’ says Don Tomita, director of design at Convene Hospitality. ‘The building itself is so gorgeous we wanted to keep a lot of [its industrial qualities] and layer in some refinement.’
That included referencing the building’s railyard history through industrial materials, original heavy-timber columns and 3.2 acres of exposed brick, but also pulling from a little-known part of the Terminal Warehouse’s history: cowboys on horseback that used to clear the way for freight trains. ‘We were very fascinated by the fact that there was a western component to the area as well,’ says Tomita, a fact that’s referenced in materials like leather, details like whipstitching and paisley-print fabric light fixtures. Want a party? You can even incorporate Tunnel’s original go-go dancer cages into your scheme. Convene’s operators are betting that the venue’s ‘social vibe’ coupled with its hyperflexibility and enviable Hudson riverside location will make it an attractive option for large events in the city.
It’s a smart bet to make, considering it’s more challenging than ever to operate a successful nightclub or bar in New York. According to a report released this month by the NYC Hospitality Alliance, an advocacy organisation that supports the local restaurant and nightlife industry, 50 per cent of hospitality businesses surveyed reported either breaking even or operating at a loss. This mirrors broader national trends: A study from the National Independent Venue Association released last year found that 64 per cent of venues nationwide were not profitable.
‘New York City’s restaurants and bars are getting squeezed from both sides – the cost of doing business keeps rising while many customers are feeling the affordability crunch,’ said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, in a statement. Those factors, coupled with cultural shifts like plummeting alcohol sales, have put a damper on nightlife in the City that Never Sleeps.
But some venues are finding a path forward by looking to the past: reviving or reinventing some of New York’s most legendary party meccas. In the last year, a wave of nostalgia has swept the city’s nightlife – even if it’s just for one night only. To wit: Valentino Beauty brought back the legendary disco-era club, Studio 54, back for an evening for New York Fashion Week last autumn, complete with Donna Summer on the sound system and an appearance from Cher. (The revelry may have had lasting impact: the building, now the home of the Roundabout Theatre Company, just won local approval to get a $100 million facelift). Twilo, a contemporary of Tunnel and a fellow victim of Giuliani-era policies, reopened its doors for the first time in 25 years for a two-night ‘Twilo Reunion’ this March, an extravaganza that featured era-appropriate acts including DJs John Digweed and Danny Tenaglia.
Some legendary haunts are capitalising on New York’s membership boom. Maison Estelle, an exclusive members-only club in London’s Mayfair neighbourhood, is set to open its first-ever stateside location in a deconsecrated church that was once home to Limelight, another fixture in Manhattan’s ‘90s party scene. The project, according to public records, is helmed by Trevor Stahelski, the same developer who shepherded the arrival of another UK transplant, The Twenty Two New York. While design details for Maison Estelle are still under wraps (though light interior renovations have won city approval) New York studio Roman and Williams will envision the interiors.
Club owners are looking to the more recent past – the 2010s – too. Meatpacking hotspot 1Oak has teased a comeback for early 2027. Former Hell’s Kitchen party palace Pacha, which closed a decade ago, reopened in the former home of Brooklyn Mirage this summer.
Another notable return is Avenue, the Chelsea nightclub that first opened in 2009. That club shut down during the pandemic. But this summer, Tao Group Hospitality announced Avenue’s comeback in a dizzying new venue – the 101st floor of a skyscraper in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards. In its heyday, Avenue was branded as a ‘gastrolounge,’ a classier foil to its rowdier, Great Recession-era predecessors.
Avenue Sky Lounge, perhaps in keeping with the age of its original patrons, is even more grown up, with luxe interiors by experiential design agency Journey that reference Art Deco architecture and feature tactile materials like luxe suede, lacquered wood and upholstered walls and ceilings.
‘Bringing Avenue back to New York is deeply personal for us,’ said Tao co-CEO Noah Tepperberg in the opening announcement. ‘It’s a brand that has always represented the best of what we do, and reimagining it 1,100 feet above Manhattan felt like the only way to do it justice.’
It’s a strategy that appears to be working, especially in an era where Gen-Z wistfulness for Y2K aesthetics and a time pre-smartphone is at an all-time peak. Tickets and reservations are quickly snapped up; and the parties and eye-catching design make for had-to-be-there social media lore.
For the OG patrons of these venues, however, you just had to be there. Don Tomita, the designer of the Mallory, has heard anecdotes from former Tunnel patrons. ‘I was talking to someone the other day, she’s in her 80s, and I said I was working on the Tunnel project,’ he recalls. ‘She said, “Oh, you missed a great time.”’