Michael Waldman, head of North Manhattan Construction Corp., is developing a 24-hour entertainment and catering venue at 37-31 10th Street to be known as The Queensbridge Theater. The 5,000 square foot club will occupy the ground floor and mezzanine levels of a 5-story warehouse, recently purchased by Waldman.
According to club manager Robert Prichard, The Queensbridge Theater will be “a rock and roll supper club, similar to a Bowery Ballroom or a Mercury Lounge with a restaurant – a first for Long Island City, a first for Queens.” But that’s not all: The space – which will hold up to 500 people – will be used not just for concerts, but for Broadway and Off Broadway shows, performances for children, Cabaret, dinner theater, art exhibits and community outreach. “We won’t just be a night club, but a day club, too,” says Prichard, a New York night club veteran and former manager of Surf Realty, the eccentric performance art and experimental theater he founded in 1993 on the Lower East Side. “Long Island City is a light industrial neighborhood – there are about 10,000 workers within a one mile radius, all underserved for food during the day.” The venue will open at 7 am, serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, have a bakery on the premises, and, via a partnership with the local community board and public schools, develop a series of after-school programs.