Defunct nightclub (1986–2001) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Tunnel was a nightclub located at 220 Twelfth Avenue, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.[1] It operated from 1986 to 2001.
The nightclub was located within the Terminal Warehouse Company Central Stores Building, also known as Chelsea Terminal Warehouse, which is now part of the West Chelsea Historic District.[2]
Tunnel, also known as "The Tunnel," was owned by Boaz Aharoni, a real-estate developer, and Elli Dayan, founder and former chairman of Bonjour International, a company best known for blue jeans.[3] The club was built in a space which was formerly a railroad freight terminal.[4] Dayan sold the property to Marco Riccota in January 1990. Peter Gatien acquired the 80,000-square-foot nightclub in 1992.
Tunnel closed its doors late in 2001 due to non-payment of rent[5] and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's quality-of-life campaign.[6] Gatien had been accused of drug trafficking, charges he was acquitted of, although he and his wife pleaded guilty to tax evasion and were deported to Canada in 2003.[7]
The club was named for the tunnel-like shape of the main room, in which train tracks from the early 1900s ran through a sunken area of the dance floor. These were a relic of an era in which railroad sidings from the Eleventh Avenue freight line of the New York Central Railroad ran directly into warehouse buildings in that area,[8] so that goods could be transferred to and from freight cars which crossed the Hudson on car floats from Hoboken.[2]
The club was architecturally distinctive: a long, narrow space with multiple rooms on several levels.[9] The dance floor featured several dance cages. The decor of the club changed frequently. One room, decorated by artist Kenny Scharf, was called the Kenny Scharf Lava Lounge. Others were decorated as Victorian libraries, S/M dungeons, and lounges.[10]
The club featured unisex bathrooms, which were the converted locker rooms formerly used by the freight terminal's workers. They had modern stalls with partitions and doors for privacy, extant rows of old lockers attached to the wall, as well as marks where the former shower stalls had been removed. In the late 1980s, Club Kids, including Michael Alig, Amanda Lepore, and RuPaul, often gathered in the V.I.P. room in the basement.[11]
During its lifespan, Tunnel frequently hosted Johnny Dynell and Roman Ricardo in the late 80s and into the early 90s. More DJs included Junior Vasquez, Danny Tenaglia, Jonathan Peters, Peregrine Hood, Little Louie Vega, DJ Renegade, Eddie Baez, DJ Justin Time, DJ Cliffy D, DJ Corbett, DJ DA, Bobby Rios and Hex Hector after the close of the original Sound Factory in the mid-1990s. It later presented Kurfew, a trance-techno oriented Saturday night party started by promoter Jeff Brenner[12] and hosted by talent such as Lady Bunny, DJ Urbanox, Peppermint, DJ Vito Fun, DJ Redstar (DJ Chris Sharpe on WLIR), DJ Michael T, Amanda Lepore, DJ Jason, and DJ Steve Sidewalk.
Tunnel introduced young clubbers to talent including Danny Tenaglia, Jonny McGovern, and Cazwell (as Morplay). Renowned doorman Fernando Sarralha was the keeper of the velvet rope. While the club attracted primarily gay audiences, it also attracted members of the hip hop community. One advantage of the multiple rooms of the club was the ability to host different types of parties, with as many as five or more DJs spinning different styles of music to varying crowds. In 1998, DJ Amadeus was named the resident DJ at Tunnel.[13]
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