Meow Wolf, an immersive experience that offers sprawling venues outfitted with interactive art (some of which visitors can climb), is at last coming to New York City. It will be housed in a multi-floor, nearly 75,000-square-foot space at South Street Seaport’s Pier 17.
The company, which started in Santa Fe, New Mexico, already runs popular art spaces in Las Vegas, Denver, Texas, Santa Fe and, starting next year, Los Angeles.
The New York City venue will be its seventh permanent location and the news was announced Monday at a SXSW panel on “The Power of Absurdity.”
Meow Wolf Omega Mart in Las Vegas
“This is going to be the most ambitiously creative Meow Wolf we’ve ever done,” Meow Wolf’s NYC-based CEO, Jose Tolosa, said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
Some immersive experiences have gotten bad names in recent years for overpromising and underdelivering, or for being elaborate marketing schemes. But Meow Wolf is something of a grandaddy of the genre.
It began with a DIY artist collective in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which, in 2015, received a $2.5 million pledge from “Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin. The group used the money to turn a bowling alley into Meow Wolf’s first location. It was enormously successful, made multiple times its projected revenue, attracted hourslong lines and has since grown into a multimillion-dollar experiential empire.
Meow Wolf Grapevine
As with the other locations, the Manhattan Meow Wolf is slated to have a bar and restaurant and a theme, although further details have yet to be announced.
An opening date is also not yet firm, although Tolosa estimates it’ll “take about three years,” putting an opening around 2028.
The news comes amid enormous financial woes for the Seaport, which hosts the $200 million food hall the Tin Building by Jean-Georges, and which recently cut a large amount of staff. As well, the Tulum-born lounge Gitano opened at Pier 17 this month only to promptly close and push back its official opening date.
