Webster Hall will be closed for much longer than previously expected

Last week, New York night owls said goodbye to Webster Hall. The iconic East Village venue was sold to AEG and Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment (the company that owns Barclays Center), and will enter a period of renovations that is expected to make the space all but unrecognizable. 

In an interview leading up to Webster Hall's closure, VP of concerts and booker Heath Miller said that a new iteration of Webster Hall would reopen after 18 months. In a piece published in Billboard on Monday, Miller clarified the timetable (which the new owners still haven't confirmed), saying that the "length of the renovation period has grown drastically from the original projections," and that the venue may not reopen until 2019 or 2020.

Webster Hall has evolved a great deal since it first opened in 1886. As a popular music venue for much of the 20th century, it operated as the Ritz nightclub in 1980. A decade later it was purchased by the Ballinger family, who turned it into the legendary nightclub that New Yorkers grew to know and love. 

It's unclear what the new owners have in store for Webster Hall—all we know is that we won't be able to twinkle our toes into the night there for quite some time.