After two decades in business, Jay-Z has decided to close the doors on his infamous 40/40 Club and head to a new location.
The bar and lounge hosted its last party in New York City’s Flatiron District at the end of July and will be relocating sometime next year, a spokesperson told NY Eater. The 40/40 has hosted a number of lavish star-studded events since its opening in 2003.
In addition to countless soirees Jay-Z held there, J. Cole hosted an album release party at the location and LeBron James celebrated a birthday there. Locals and tourists alike enjoyed the establishment that became a staple in NYC before expanding to four additional locations.
Along with the Manhattan lounge, the 40/40 opened a lounge in Las Vegas, a club in
Atlantic City, a bar at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, and a restaurant at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The Las Vegas location closed one year after its 2007 launch, and the Atlantic City location closed in 2013 amid claims of unpaid rent.The Brooklyn location remains open amid the close of the flagship lounge. The Flatiron location faced its own set of controversies throughout its 20 years of operation.
In 2012, it reopened amid a Forbes deep dive into its declining attendance and labor disputes with workers. Jay-Z was even said to be losing interest in the club as he opted out of visiting the 40/40 and would party at The Spotted Pig, a West Village gastropub he co-owned at the time.
But after a $10 million renovation to make the flagship lounge more competitive with newer clubs in downtown Manhattan at the time, the 40/40 lasted another decade.
“I wanted to retain the feel of a clubhouse, a relaxed place to interact with friends,” Jay-Z told Rolling Stone ahead of the reopening.
Jay-Z’s involvement with The Spotted Pig came to an end when the bar closed in 2020. His real estate company, SCC Greenwich Realty, sold the location for $7.5 million in 2022.
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