Brick at Blue Star has been an iconic music and arts venue in the King William neighborhood of San Antonio since 2014. Credit: Courtesy
San Antonio music and arts venue Brick at Blue Star has been locked out due to unpaid rent, MySA reports.
The online news site reports that a message posted to the door said the venue is “closed until further notice.” Additionally, owner Elizabeth Ciarfeo confirmed with MySA that she received a lockout notice from the Brick’s landlord on Monday, Feb. 9.
On Feb. 12, a local resident posted about the lockout notice in a San Antonio discussion on Threads.
Brick at Blue Star has operated in the bustling Blue Star Arts Complex, 1414 S. Alamo St., since 2014, hosting events ranging from vendor markets and music showcases to art shows and private parties. The venue is also a nexus of First Friday, the citywide celebration that brings a monthly flurry of activity and events to the area.
Ciarfeo attributed the venue’s financial decline to a “cascade” of money lost since the COVID-19 pandemic, MySA reports.
In January, a group of former employees claimed Ciarfeo owed them more than $7,000 in unpaid wages from June through September 2025. The collective called for a boycott of Brick until their wages were paid in full. However, the group also expressed hopes that the venue would survive and indicated they would support a fundraiser to save it.
Though Ciarfeo publicly disputed the figures the former workers presented in their claims of unpaid wages, the group announced on Wednesday, Feb. 11 that they had been paid in full.
But unpaid rent and wages reportedly aren’t Ciarfeo’s only money woes.
MySA reports Ciarfeo showed the online publication a recent Bexar County tax assessment that detailed more than $18,000 in owed taxes, an amount she plans to dispute by April 15. Additionally, a lawsuit filed by Bexar County on October 29, 2025, alleged that the venue owed $10,998.70 in county, city and school district taxes at the time.
“The employee thing … that’s been paid off,” Ciarfeo told MySA. “Rent has not been paid, and my landlord deserves to be paid. He does, and I just can’t. And so until that time I do come up with the money, I believe from the lockout notice that it will stay locked out. I probably think that it could be the end for Brick. It would take a miracle — let’s put it that way — or somebody with deep pockets to come in and take it over.”
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