Hudson Yards Event Venue Goes Bankrupt After Virus Cancellations

(Bloomberg) -- Hudson Mercantile, the tony event space in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards neighborhood, filed for bankruptcy Monday after the Covid-19 pandemic curtailed revenues to almost nothing.

Founded in 2008, the company is located in a former industrial building and is “one of the premier event venues in New York,” owner and operator Bentley Meeker said in a court declaration. The space has hosted fashion shows, product launches and cultural conventions, including parts of New York Comic Con.

Hudson Mercantile posted revenues in excess of $1.6 million in each of the past three years, but event restrictions this year brought the company’s business to a halt, Meeker said. The space went from having “scores of events per week, often simultaneously” to completely shutting down in March, Meeker said in court papers. It’s recently started hosting outdoor events on its rooftop again.

To deal with the temporary closures, the space’s staff of four shrank to one, and it stopped contracting with the “dozens” of freelancers it did before, he said. The venue includes a 5,200-square-foot ground floor, a 6,000-square-foot sixth floor studio and 5,000-square-foot rooftop, court papers show.

Though Hudson Mercantile can host outdoor events again, that revenue stream is now under threat because the developer of an adjacent building is suing Hudson Mercantile’s landlord for access to the rooftop for construction. Damage to the rooftop business would be a “death blow,” Meeker said.

Hudson Mercantile expects to be able to reorganize in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which allows companies to continue operating while working out a plan to repay debts, by executing a “strategic pivot” to rooftop events and eventually resuming limited indoor functions.

Meeker’s lighting and staging business provides management services to Hudson Mercantile. The company has provided lighting for White House functions, fashion shows and movie premiere events, Meeker said.

Meeker and attorneys for Hudson Mercantile didn’t immediately return requests for comment.

The case is Street Level LLC, 20-12464, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan). To view the docket in Bloomberg Law, click here.

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