The House of Blues on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles will close during the first week of August, ending a more than 20-year run in operation. The announcement is somewhat of a surprise, as previous reports suggested that the venue would remain in business until 2017. According to Billboard's report, no indication has been given as of yet why the demolition of the venue has been numbed up by nearly two years.
Live Nation, the operator of the House of Blues venue chain, announced during 2014 that it would be closing the Los Angeles location during 2017 to make room for a larger complex that would include a hotel, apartments and a new entertainment facility, not associated with the House of Blues name.
No word on whether ticket sales have been lagging, perhaps inspiring those at the top to move closing plans forward. That said, the House of Blues L.A. was the no. 9 most popular club of 2014, bringing in more than 172,000 visitors. There are no other change of plans for the other dozen House of Blues locations scattered around the nation.
There will, unfortunately, be a human cost to the matter. The House of Blues employs nearly 200 individuals, almost all of whom will find themselves unemployed on July 31...again, earlier than they would have expected earlier. The Los Angeles Business Journal suggests that some of the employees—stagehands and security, mainly—will have the opportunity to transfer to other Live Nation-owned venues in the Los Angeles area.
The company has reported that it's looking to relocate its Los Angeles chapter of the House of Blues franchise to a new "flagship" location, but you'll have to stay tuned for details. If there is any development on that front, the current employees of the current location certainly haven't heard anything.
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