{"id":158855,"date":"2026-03-10T04:32:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T04:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/158855\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T04:32:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T04:32:17","slug":"new-abba-theater-will-take-up-half-a-block-on-11th-avenue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/158855\/","title":{"rendered":"New ABBA theater will take up half a block on 11th Avenue"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Big Apple will soon be the new home of ABBA \u2014 sort of.<\/p>\n

New York City developers are paving the way to host the second-ever site of \u201cABBA <\/a>Voyage,\u201d a virtual concert experience that will beam holograms of the 1970s Swedish pop sensations \u2014 Agnetha F\u00e4ltskog, Bj\u00f6rn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad \u2014 in their prime.<\/p>\n

The London-based attraction that is slated to occupy half a city block in Midtown West will reportedly open in 2028.<\/p>\n

Gary Barnett\u2019s Extell Development and partner Bluestone Group recently applied to demolish a 1.4-acre site along Hell\u2019s Kitchen\u2019s 11th Avenue between West 45th and 46th Streets solely for the sake of the virtual show, Crain\u2019s New York<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

ABBA Voyage will feature lifelike avatars of ABBA\u2019s members for a 100-minute performance. ABBA Voyage\/Youtube<\/p>\n

The intended site of ABBA Voyage\u2019s first US location is a half-block stretch along 11th Avenue. Google Maps<\/p>\n

The West Side stretch once hosted the former nightclub Pacha, as well as a Metropolitan Lumber location, a Daisy May\u2019s and the Penthouse Executive Club.<\/p>\n

If all goes according to plan, a 175,000-square-foot concert venue with a 3,000-person capacity will take its place so all of New Yorkers can bop along to \u201cDancing Queen.\u201d<\/p>\n

News of the plans broke in November, when W42ST reported<\/a> that the New York City\u00a0Industrial Development Agency (NYCIDA) had quietly approved a $50 million package of city tax incentives to support the land acquisition and build.<\/p>\n

Representatives from the city\u2019s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) pitched the $500 million project as \u201ca technology-driven concert featuring digital avatars of the four ABBA members alongside a live band,\u201d expected to draw 900,000 concertgoers annually.<\/p>\n

The London-based attraction has reportedly sold 3.5 million tickets across its four-year run. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Members Agnetha F\u00e4ltskog, Bj\u00f6rn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad were hands-on in the virtual concert\u2019s development. ABBA Voyage\/Youtube<\/p>\n

Considering the virtual concert experience is already a hit in London, where it hosts seven shows a week and has reportedly sold 3.5 million tickets since opening in 2022, New York City will greatly benefit from this head-scratching project, as it\u2019s projected to create 120 permanent jobs and generate over $156 million in new city tax revenue over 18 years.<\/p>\n

The 100-minute performance was developed by the four Eurovision legends themselves, Curbed reported<\/a>. The members, now in their 70s, apparently spent several weeks grooving in motion-capture suits to create the concert\u2019s lifelike visuals.<\/p>\n

New York City and Las Vegas were reportedly in a fierce competition to host the hologram concert. ABBA Voyage\/Youtube<\/p>\n

The 1.4-acre site itself was hotly contested for years. Google Maps<\/p>\n

Luring ABBA Voyage to the Big Apple has been a two-and-a-half-year endeavor, according to the EDC reps, citing fierce competition with Las Vegas, which was also keen on hosting it.<\/p>\n

Extell and Bluestone have sought to take control of the 1.4-acre assemblage from investor Robert Gans for years, Crain\u2019s reported. Gans sued the partners in 2022, according to the outlet, and later applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for himself and his properties.<\/p>\n

City records indicate Gans still owns the seven Hell\u2019s Kitchen sites, but, in the sage words of ABBA, it\u2019s all about the \u201cMoney, Money, Money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Big Apple will soon be the new home of ABBA \u2014 sort of. New York City developers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[48053,1489,360,9,11,10,1491],"class_list":["post-158855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-abba","tag-commercial-real-estate","tag-midtown","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}