Brooklyn Bowl to Open Sister Clubs in London and Las Vegas

Emily Berl for The New York Times Crowds outside Brooklyn Bowl in January 2011.

Brooklyn Bowl, one of the city’s most popular music nightspots, is expanding to two other cities, establishing clubs in London and Las Vegas, the owners said.

The partners behind the nightclub in Brooklyn â€" a converted bowling alley on Wythe Avenue that features food and live music â€" say they have signed deals to lease large spaces adjacent to the O2 Arena in London and at the base of a giant ferris wheel in a new outdoor mall in Las Vegas.

Both clubs will be built to resemble the Brooklyn performance space, with bowling lanes, elaborate video screens, a music stage and food provided by Blue Ribbon Restaurants, the culinary company headed by Eric and Bruce Bromberg, the club owners said. “It will feel like you are in Brooklyn,” said Peter Shapiro, one of the partners.

The Las Vegas club will be 78,000 square feet with two levels, big enough to hold 2,000 people. Madison Square Garden Entertainment is a minority investor in the project, having contributed about $25 million to the project, which will include a “high energy bar and restaurant,” according to the company’s earning call this week.

“Peter and his team at Brooklyn Bowl have put together an innovative model that has made Brooklyn Bowl a favorite for fans of live music,” Melissa Ormond, president of MSG Entertainment, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to partner with them to take the Bowl to Las Vegas.”

Chad Batka for The New York Times Kanye West performing at Brooklyn Bowl in 2010.

Mr. Shapiro â€" who owns Brooklyn Bowl with Charley Ryan, Jim Woods and Alex Cornfeld â€" said the London club will have a closed circuit connection to video cameras and the main sound board inside the 02 Arena, allowing the club to show live concerts in the arena as they happen. The club will also book its own bands some nights and serve as a forum for after-concert parties and shows, he said.

Mr. Shapiro said the partnership that controls Brooklyn Bowl â€" the Bowls L.L.C. â€" had signed a 15-year lease with the concert giant AEG, which owns the 02 Arena. He expects that club to open before Christmas.

Jay Marciano, the president and chief executive of AEG Europe, said his company will be more than a landlord. AEG has entered an equal partnership with Brooklyn Bowl to build the club in a 28,000-square-foot exhibition space in the arena complex and will share in its profits.

Mr. Marciano said he became an admirer of Brooklyn Bowl during his tenure in New York as the head of Madison Square Garden Entertainment, noting it was popular among musicians as well as fans. About a year ago, having taken the helm of AEG Europe, Mr. Marciano approached Mr. Shapiro and proposed converting the exhibition space at the O2 into a similar club. “I figured that was the best use of the space,” he said in an interview.

AEG has also entered a partnership with Brooklyn Bowl to handing the booking of acts at the Las Vegas club, which is scheduled to open in March, Mr. Shapiro said.

Not only have Mr. Shapiro and his partners enticed both AEG and Madison Square Garden to invest in their new venture, but they have entered a 15-year lease agreement with Caesars Entertainment, the casino and resort company developing The Linq, an open-air mall on the Las Vegas Strip. The mall will feature the High Roller, one of the largest Ferris wheels in the world, and the new Brooklyn Bowl is being built at its base.

“I feel good about it,” Mr. Shapiro said. “Some of the biggest names in the entertainment business are coming together on a venue that then will be owned by an independent company.”

Mr. Shapiro declined to say how much he and his partners are investing in the two new clubs, nor how it is being financed, saying only the group has “committed several million dollars.” The partners also have been searching for a space in the West Loop of Chicago for a fourth club, he said.

The owners are hoping their rapid expansion, just four years after opening the club in Brooklyn, pays off. In London, they are betting people shut out of sold-out concerts at the arena will pay to see the shows in their club. In Las Vegas, they note, most nightclubs are offering electronic dance music, and, aside from the big casinos, performance spaces devoted to live bands are few.

The Brooklyn club offers an eclectic mix of performers, from emerging indie bands to old-time funk groups like the Meters. “Being in a place that’s lifting off - and you’re a part of it,” Mr. Ryan said. “That’s a feeling everybody wants.”