As its failure to open sent owner Avant Gardner into bankruptcy, the Brooklyn Mirage was plagued by safety issues and far from “show-ready,” as it had claimed.
On May 1, the day the Mirage was set to reopen, it was structurally questionable and not up to code, according to the Department of Buildings. Three months and dozens of canceled shows later, very little has changed.
“The way all this has unfolded is quite unfortunate,” said DOB commissioner James Oddo in an Aug. 5 statement. “But let’s be crystal clear: [DOB] did an outstanding job of protecting New Yorkers from entering a structure that was unsafe.”
A renovation gone wrong
With an open roof and a capacity of about 5,000, the Brooklyn Mirage closes each winter and reopens in the spring, often with a slightly different look. Because the venue only runs for a few months at a time, it operates under a Temporary Place of Assembly Certificate of Occupancy (TPACO), which it re-applies for every year, records show.
Last spring, the Mirage announced a massive renovation.
The venue would be rebuilt “from the ground up,” then-CEO Josh Wyatt said in March, with massive screens, new sound equipment, a larger dance floor, “opera-style balconies,” and a 90-foot performance area with a roof rigging structure that could support up to 400,000 pounds. The design was to feature a massive prefabricated wood structure that would stand 65 feet tall and 197 feet long.
When the Mirage canceled its reopening hours before doors were slated to open, it first seemed to be a temporary delay.
“We want to be clear: the venue is show ready and the New Mirage has been built to exacting safety, structural, mechanical and technical specifications,” the venue said in a since-deleted Instagram post. “However, we were not able to meet the final inspection deadline today.”
Behind the scenes, things were more dire. Two days earlier, DOB had revoked the venue’s TPACO.
“The project was filed as a temporary structure but did not meet the criteria to be one,” an agency spokesperson said. At the time, the venue didn’t meet standards for a temporary or permanent structure.
But that was only the tip of the iceberg.
“DOB had numerous objections to the performance space, both safety related and technical in nature, that prevented the project from being code-compliant and safe enough to open for the public,” a DOB spokesperson said. “This wasn’t a question of red tape, but rather a list of legitimate issues with the constructed space.”
DOB inspectors found that the structure hadn’t been engineered to stand up to wind or seismic activity. The steel truss over the stage, which had been designed to include heavy-duty bracing, was not built to plan and was instead unbraced, leaving it less stable.
There weren’t enough automatic fire sprinklers or exterior exit stairwells in the oft-crowded, multi-story venue; and its frame was built with materials like engineered strand board, which is not properly fire-rated, instead of heavy timber.
The Mirage also didn’t meet accessibility requirements. Building code requires at least one accessible route to all portions of the building and to the accessible bathrooms, and the venue didn’t include that route.
DOB also noted a “general failure to provide required number of toilet facilities.”
“From [Mirage’s] questionable footing to the large truss at its zenith, from its cantilevered mezzanines to its exterior walls, it was potentially unsteady, combustible, illegal, and no place to put 6,000 people,” Oddo said.
The Brooklyn Mirage did not return request for comment.
Several of the Mirage’s construction permits have been “on hold” since May, records show. On May 20, the Mirage said in an Instagram post that it was “making great progress towards opening our doors.” Two days later, Avant Gardner fired Wyatt as CEO and brought in Gary Richards to replace him.
Summer plans scrapped
DOB has “worked to provide guidance” and tell management what they had to do to bring the building up to code. But, in July, project managers told the agency they were no longer aiming to open this summer. On Aug. 4, the Mirage’s parent company, Avant Gardner, filed for bankruptcy.
The company had spent significant cash — and taken out several large loans — as it attempted to finish the Mirage before May 1, Richards said in court filings, and losing the venue for the season was “catastrophic” for its finances.
As of Aug. 4, Mirage had canceled or moved dozens of shows and granted many refunds, and at least 90,000 people still held tickets to events planned for later in the summer.
Richards also said it believed some of its contractors “contributed to the construction problems.” As the Mirage’s Chapter 11 filing moves through bankruptcy court, Avant Gardner “expects to continue to work, with the support of [lenders] with the DOB to ensure a remedial plan with respect to the structure is completed responsibly and safely,” he said.
The company has yet to submit new plans to the DOB. A TPACO application filed in July is “in review status,” city records show, but no programming is allowed at the Mirage “until further notice.”
Oddo said on Aug. 4 that “if appropriate Mirage plans are submitted, they will be processed professionally.”
“The new Brooklyn Mirage leadership team we had been dealing with recently with was candid, transparent, willing to own all of the mistakes that lead us to this point, and demonstrated common sense,” he said. “That was refreshing and appreciated.”
