The Market Hotel operated as an underground DIY all-ages rock venue for more than two years, acquiring an international following of indie music aficionados before cops shut it down in April.
Now, Brooklyn concert promoter Todd Patrick, aka Todd P., is resurrecting it as a legit nonprofit arts space and hoping to win institutional support — and respect — for rock music, just as jazz, opera and other forms have garnered.
The scruffy Bushwick spot was a latter-day CBGB, a place for indie bands on the verge of breaking into bigger gigs, like Deerhunter, Dan Deacon, Neon Indian and Surfer Blood.
“They were buzzy as hell,” Patrick said, “but they hadn’t played the one show that cemented to the powers that be to put money behind them and make national.”
The Market Hotel Project, as the new venture is called, is starting to raise the estimated $100,000 needed for permits, sprinklers, bathrooms and bringing the 1870s former bank up to ADA compliance. Patrick, who has rebuffed offers to go commercial, expects the 325-person hall will take one to two years to complete.
“I don’t know many venues like it,” said Domenic Gagliano, buyer for Permanent Records, a Greenpoint independent music store, who recalled seeing the Smith Westerns, Real Estate and others at the “dilapidated” space where shows never started on time. “It’s where bands get their start.”
