The Abbey, the historic gay bar in West Hollywood, is on the market.
The 10,000 square feet space is listed online by commercial real estate company, The Brandon Michaels Group, says in their 28 page “Offering Memo”, it’s a
a generational purchase opportunity to acquire one of the world’s most iconic nightclubs and restaurants.”
The property includes both the Abbey Food and Bar and the Chapel at the Abbey, a 2016 add-on to the original business.
David Cooley, an investment banker, opened the Abbey as a coffee shop in 1991. Cooley said in The Advocate in 2015, that
even in 1991, the gay bars of the day were secretive. They were places mostly only other gay people socialized. They were hidden behind black curtains and smoked glass“…
[it was] “an opportunity to do something different. We had an outdoor patio that was open to the street and adjacent to a park. People could see us as they went by, day or night.
That was a radical idea for a gay bar at that time.”
John Duran, who was on the WeHo City Council for nearly 20 years until 2020, told the LA Times,
[Cooley’s] vision was in complete alignment with the city to reinvigorate historic Boystown and create a world-renowned gay establishment.
As one generation of LGBT passes into memory and new generations arrive, it will be fascinating to witness the changes that may lie ahead for the historic district.”
