\u201cTo every person who has ever walked through the doors, thank you. To our loyal regulars who became a second family, thank you \u2013 this place would never have been what it was without you. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd to all of our staff, past and present, thank you for the countless late nights, hard work, energy and passion you brought to the venue. Red Square was only ever as special as the people behind it.\u201d <\/p>\n
The nightclub said it will be \u201copening its doors for the last time\u201d on May 30.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease join us as we party and celebrate at Red Square, one last time. Here\u2019s to 23 legendary years of Red Square.\u201d<\/p>\n
Red Square\u2019s announcement received an outpouring of support and disappointment from its patrons, with many expressing \u201cheartbreak\u201d and reminiscing about past memories at the nightclub. <\/p>\n
Last week, Roger Young and Potti Williams, the owners of Cuban-themed Havana Bar and Restaurant, told One Roof they had decided to call it quits after 35 years in hospitality. For years, Havana has been a favourite late-night haunt for Wellingtonians and visiting movie stars alike. <\/p>\n
Young, known in the city as the \u201cmayor of Cuba Street\u201d, said it was time for a reset.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve done our dues for Wellington hospitality. We\u2019ve been in the game for 35 years and I\u2019d just really like to sail off in the sunset and do something else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It comes after a difficult few years for businesses in Wellington\u2019s CBD, with popular streets like Lambton Quay and Courtenay Place littered with empty shop fronts. <\/p>\n
According to Stats NZ, the number of active companies in the capital has been shrinking over the past two years. <\/p>\n
From March 2024 to March 2026, a net 1581 companies vanished from the Wellington region. <\/p>\n
Only Gisborne (24) and Marlborough (78) also saw a net decrease in active companies in the same two-year period out of all the regions tracked by Stats NZ. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cTo every person who has ever walked through the doors, thank you. To our loyal regulars who became…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[34309,74,8831,806,17181,138,6789,17163,18836,9060,6741,8127,8985,2082,130,111,43,139,99386,55083,69,1118,15406,57343,10505,131,52,1533,1530],"class_list":["post-421510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-34309","tag-after","tag-an","tag-as","tag-bar","tag-business","tag-closing","tag-closure","tag-club","tag-decades","tag-doors","tag-end","tag-era","tag-for","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nightclub","tag-nightlife","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-red","tag-shuts","tag-square","tag-than","tag-wellington","tag-will","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}