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Read the press release here.

Community Board Gives Thumbs Up to New Club in Shadow's Space

By  Alan Neuhauser and Mathew Katz | February 28, 2013 1:00pm 

MIDTOWN — The likely new owners of the Shadow nightclub won initial support to re-open, seemingly ending a threat by club's current manager to "torment" its West 28th Street neighbors with a "bigger, badder and blacker" nightspot.

Potential owners Michael Satsky and Brian Gefter, who also operate Meatpacking bottle-service haven Provocateur, presented their concept for a high-class club and performance venue to Community Board 5's Public Safety and Quality of Life Committee on Tuesday, which gave it a thumbs-up as long as it sticks to a variety of stipulations.

Shadow's current owner hopes to sell it to Satsky and Gefter, but only can if their liquor license is approved. The new club, tentatively called Roam, would hold 525 people and be focused around rock-and-roll and electronic music.

Committee members voted to recommend the State Liquor Authority approve its liquor license as long as the owners agreed to a number of stipulations, including stating in a affadavit that the club would have a promised 16 security guards on hand — four times the city requirement.

For years, neighbors have complained about loud parties, disorderly crowds, traffic-laden streets and violent incidents at the Shadow, which has been on the block for over 17 years. Police shut down the club at 229 W. 28th St. last week, the second time cops closed it in a year.

On Monday, club owner Steven Juliano told DNAinfo.com New York that he would bring the club back if officials did not approve Roam's liquor license.

"We will come back with a bigger, badder and blacker Shadow nightclub — and trust me, they'll really hate that last part," he said.

Roam's license application still has to go before the full CB5 board and the State Liquor Authority before it gets full approval.

Satsky said the club would be starkly different from Shadow, and he plans to bring in well-known acts that typically play larger venues, often for private concerts.

“It can range from everything from Lenny Kravitz performing after a show for a private network," he said.

"That can happen with the Killers, that can happen with MGMT, that can happen with Empire of the Sun. On a regular basis, what we’re talking about is live electronic music.”

Community Board committee member Alan Miles said he understood concerns about the location, but praised Satsky and Gefter for meeting with neighbors and being the "most professional, most cooperative [operators] that I've personally ever worked with."

Some big names came to speak in favor of the new club, including Paolo Zampolli, an ambassador to the United Nations from the Commonwealth of Dominica, and former New York Ranger Sean Avery.

Avery in particular stressed the VIP nature of Provocateur and, presumably, the new club.

"It's a very affluent crowd," he said.

"If you stood outside Provocateur on a nighly basis, it's town cars. It's cars that are called, arrive, pick up and leave."

Juliano could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday.