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Get ready to experience the thrill of seeing ABBA in their heyday. Developers are planning to bring ABBA Voyage, the high-tech concert experience built around holographic versions of the Swedish pop group, to Hell’s Kitchen. The project is one step closer to reality and, if all goes as planned, the show will open in 2028 inside a purpose-built venue on 11th Avenue between West 45th and 46th Streets.
The project comes from Extell Development and the Bluestone Group, which recently filed paperwork to demolish a stretch of low-rise buildings on the block. The site once housed a nightclub, a lumberyard and a few other businesses. In their place will be a 175,000-square-foot arena designed specifically for the show, with room for about 3,000 fans at a time.
The concept has already proven itself across the Atlantic. When ABBA Voyage debuted in London in 2022, it quickly became one of the city’s most unusual and successful attractions. The production now runs seven shows a week and has sold roughly 3.5 million tickets as of late 2025.
If you haven’t seen clips online, the premise sounds almost too weird to work. The four members of ABBA—Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad—appear on stage as digital versions of themselves from their late-’70s prime. The real musicians, now in their 70s and 80s, spent weeks in motion-capture suits so animators could recreate their movements down to the smallest gesture.
A team of about 140 visual-effects artists from Industrial Light & Magic, the studio behind many Marvel films, helped build the digital performers. The result is a 100-minute concert where the band looks uncannily real, backed by a live band and surrounded by immersive lighting and visuals.
ABBA isn’t physically in the arena, but with ABBA Voyage the group created the concert they always wished they could stage. It's an electric combo of arena spectacle, disco nostalgia and sci-fi theater rolled into one.
Developers estimate the project will cost around $500 million, with the city’s Industrial Development Agency approving roughly $50 million in tax incentives to help secure the production for New York instead of Las Vegas. If the London numbers are any indication, the gamble could pay off. Projections suggest the venue could draw around 900,000 visitors a year.
Beyond the sequins and holograms, the project also promises economic impact: hundreds of construction jobs during the build and close to 200 permanent positions once the venue opens.
For fans, though, the pitch is simpler. A few years from now, you might be able to watch ABBA perform “Dancing Queen” like it’s 1979 again, IRL.