Flight Club to Open Darts-Centric Bar at 31 Union Square West
By Abigail Nehring July 24, 2024 1:05 pm
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Darts aficionados can aim for a bull’s eye in Union Square next year.
London-based pub chain Flight Club signed a lease for 10,700 square feet spread across the ground floor, lower level and patio of 31 Union Square West, parent company State of Play Hospitality announced Wednesday.
A spokesperson for State of Play declined to disclose the length of the lease, but a source with knowledge of the deal said asking rent was $1.8 million per year.
Flight Club will take over the space at the bottom of the landmarked Bank of Metropolis building that was once occupied by eatery Blue Water Grill. The restaurant shuttered in 2019 after a two-decade run at the northwest corner of Union Square, but not without first being immortalized in the third season of the TV show “Sex and the City.”
Now Flight Club will make its New York City debut in the spot. The nightlife chain takes a technologically more advanced approach to the traditional game of darts by using automated scoring, according to the company.
The brand was founded with a London location in 2015 and expanded to the States in 2018 with a bar in Chicago, according to its website. It also has outposts in Boston, Houston, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Denver.
Toby Harris, CEO of State of Play Hospitality, said in a statement the company has been scouting for a location in New York for more than five years.
“This site has the potential to be a genuine landmark for the city and the group,” Harris said. “It’s exciting and humbling to be opening our North American Flight Club flagship at such a legendary location and I’m confident that, by complementing and retaining the character of the building, we will be able to do it justice.”
CBRE (CBRE)’s Joe Hudson and Duane Davis arranged the deal for State of Play while landlord David Ellis Real Estate was represented by Retail by MONA’s Brandon Singer, Kelly Gedinsky and Max Kreinces.
Hudson, Davis, Singer, Gedinsky and Kreinces declined to comment.
Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.
