As if the new documentary didn't make it clear enough, the glory days of the old Limelight are long gone. We now live in the glory days of IHOP. Hot on the heels of successfully opening an outpost on 14th Street with one in Bushwick coming fast, The Real Deal is reporting that the local Tri-state IHOP franchisee (Trihop, natch) has gone and signed a deal to open an outpost in the Limelight Marketplace. more ›

Oh Grimaldi's, Grimaldi's, Grimaldi's. As if the famed pizzeria didn't have enough on its plate with the rent dispute at its DUMBO home, a judge has ordered the pizzeria to cough up $2.3 million for defaulting on a 15 year lease for a space at 135 John St. Whoops! Meanwhile the restaurant's much-delayed 24-hour location in the old Limelight has no opening in sight. When we called the mothership to ask about its opening we got the honest-sounding reply: "we have no idea." more ›

The 163-year-old church that formerly housed the Limelight will now be known as the Limelight Marketplace. Times they are a changin'. The mini mall opens this Friday at 2 p.m.—it boasts 20,000-square-feet and 60 shops, cafes and food concessions throughout multiple levels (here's a sneak peek at what's inside). Get ready to party... right? Just leave your glow sticks and blow at home. more ›

Grimaldi's Pizza, one of Brooklyn's oldest and most popular pizza destinations, is expanding to Manhattan in a big way. Sometime in mid-April, the newly renovated Limelight Marketplace is expected to open, replacing the famous nightclub with over 60 boutique retailers in the 163-year-old deconsecrated Chelsea church. Grimaldi’s Pizza will fill an approximately 1,200 square foot location off the 6th Avenue entrance, and also sell pies out of a round-the-clock to-go window. It's unclear from the press release if pizza by the slice—not an option at the DUMBO Grimaldi's—will be sold, but this looks like a guaranteed hit either way. more ›

While it may not be opening until the Spring of next year, the Limelight Marketplace invited us over today to take a look at the space as it transforms yet again. Photographer Katie Sokoler reports back that, "although it's just a bunch of mini stores, they don't want to be known as a mini mall! It's a market." The folks there also told her that it would be very family friendly (but no club kids), and "Saturdays it will feel like a carnival because they'll have clowns and mascots walking around." Terrifying! more ›

The people behind the Limelight Marketplace have released renderings of their future mall. They tell us "the storied 163-year-old venue in Manhattan’s Flatiron district is being transformed into a three-story shopper’s paradise." When it opens, expect to see jewelry, organic groceries, candy, art, home decor, a salon and a sneaker shop. Do not expect to see club kids, trannies and cocaine-coated floorboards. more ›

The business group spearheading what they hope to be the next era of the Limelight—retail—presented its plans to a local community board this week and were met with a great deal of skepticism and suspicion. The Limelight Marketplace group is hoping to put a mini-mall into the onetime church whose eye-catching building along Sixth Avenue in the Chelsea is only eclipsed by the stories of the drug-fueled and freak-filled nights that went on inside its walls during its era as one of clubland meccas of the '80s and early '90s. But instead of being eager to welcome in retail stores to replace the bad reputation of Peter Gatien's club, the Flatiron community board instead came off sounding like Reverend Moore in , expressing fears that the new plan was a ruse to return to days past. The Board Landmark Chairman recommended rejecting the proposal because he worried that the retail proposal is "one big dodge to get a club going there." He also pointed to a large empty space in the floor plan that would be "perfect for dancing." The development group denied they had any intention of shaking up their plans, only saying about the new space, "There's going to be nothing else like it." more ›

A church becomes a nightclub, a nightclub becomes a store, NYC becomes Disney World, and so on. Remember that whole "the limelight is going to be a mall" and then "no, just kidding, it's going to be a film studio" thing? Well it's going to be a store now! The NY Post reports on the latest news surrounding the former famed nightclub, saying the "Jack Menashe, who owned nightclub Lounge in SoHo, is turning the long-vacant, 1849 Gothic Revival church into Limelight Marketplace with the help of designers James Mansour and Melisca Klisanin," whoever they are. Will the ghosts of drugged-up trannies and club kids haunt the soon-to-be shopping mecca? more ›

The former clubs housed at the 47 West 20th Street address have been shut down numerous times before fading into the New York nightlife history pages. The most famous, the Limelight, opened in the old church in 1983, and survived throughout the 90s before becoming Avalon in 2003, which shut down earlier this year. But who will haunt the building, which is "notorious for drugs, death, and destruction," next? more ›