The long-empty Urban Outfitters on North 6th Street is officially trading distressed denim for luxury wristwear and rooftop cocktails. Construction crews are now gutting the former retail giant and turning it into a multi-floor, members-only club co-led by watchmaker Breitling and hospitality outfit VCR Group, with developers aiming to open in the second half of 2027.
On paper, it is a serious pivot for a stretch of Williamsburg better known for chain retail than velvet ropes. Plans call for a rooftop lounge, live-music spaces and private-dining floors stacked above one another, all wrapped in a branded membership package instead of walk-in shopping.
Filings list Breitling and VCR Group as partners on the project, and Brooklyn Community Board 1 has already recommended approval of a liquor license for the address, as reported by Brooklyn Paper. The application casts the project as a multi-level members club that will fold a retail element into a broader slate of private programming for paying members.
VCR Group is the hospitality team behind Flyfish Club, the buzzy Manhattan project that originally sold NFT-based memberships and raised roughly $14.8 million, according to the SEC. Eater NY has chronicled Flyfish’s gradual Manhattan rollout and its experiment with blockchain-backed membership.
What the Club Will Include
Licensing documents and a recent presentation to neighbors sketch out a tiered playground for members, with each level offering a slightly different mood, according to Brooklyn Community Board 1. The plans describe a busy cocktail lounge on one floor, an upstairs restaurant, quieter dining areas, outdoor rooftop space and a retail component folded into the mix.
The idea is that every floor will feel like its own scene, from hushed dining rooms for long dinners to more activated event programming up on the roof. Think fewer sale racks, more clubby meetups over martinis.
Why It Matters Locally
Swapping out a national clothing chain for a branded, invitation-only club underscores how North 6th Street, and much of Williamsburg, is leaning harder into exclusive experiences over everyday retail. Eater NY has tracked how restaurants and hospitality groups across the city have increasingly chased membership and private-access models in recent years.
For neighbors, that can mean less foot-traffic shopping and more velvet-roped rooftops, with the clientele skewing closer to high-net-worth regulars than casual walk-ins.
Legal and Licensing Hurdles
The Flyfish experiment also came with a cautionary tale. The SEC found that its tokenized memberships met the definition of securities, and Flyfish agreed to a civil penalty and to destroy any remaining tokens, per the SEC. That experience hangs over any future membership schemes, even as VCR Group pivots away from the crypto side of the story.
On the more traditional regulatory front, the project still needs the State Liquor Authority to sign off on the liquor license, even with Community Board 1’s recommendation already in hand, according to public filings.
VCR Group’s David Rodolitz has told local outlets the team is targeting an opening in the back half of 2027, and construction at the North 6th Street building is already underway. Membership details reported for Flyfish, including activation fees in the low thousands and annual dues for individual and spouse packages, plus higher omakase-focused tiers, suggest the Williamsburg spot will be firmly aimed at an affluent crowd, according to Brooklyn Paper.
