New York's Limelight Sold For Shops

New York nightlife received another brutal blow this week, with the announcement
that seminal superclub venue the Limelight is to be turned into a shopping mall.

In recent years the 6th Avenue converted Episcopal church traded as Avalon though
remained best known for being the centre of Michael Alig's club kid scene of the
90s. The club also continued to be targeted by local police who most recently closed
it down during a Halloween Party over licensing technicalities.

The 1am raid prompted a despairing response from the venue's last chief Ricky
Mercado, who told the Village Voice' It's just like they are saying, 'Nightclubs—get
the f**k out of New York City', a prediction that appears justified with Limelight's
future.

"The landlord has decided that he doesn't want to go forward with another
nightclub," financial broker Frank Terzulli, of Winnick Realty Group told the New
York Post this week.

"He's going to cut it up for retail tenants and a restaurant with patio seating."

Eddie Dean from rival superclub Pacha was sympathetic, telling Skrufff 'Whew, what a
shame. Limelight will always be part of New York City nightclub history'.

"I'm not quite sure what happened, but what little I've heard is the overhead of
being located on 6th Avenue was tremendous," Eddie continued.

"The costs of operating a club in New York City have been steadily rising and the
cost of being actually on 6th Avenue had to have made things very difficult. Avalon
has had great success in other cities, but clearly New York is different," he said.