The Club Car, a popular LGBTQ+ bar in Station North, plans to close in January so it can renovate and reopen as part of the historic North Avenue Market building in Baltimore. The three-year-old venue at 12 West North Ave. won't be going far — its new home is planned for a spot roughly 50 to 100 feet to the left of where it currently sits.
Owners Darius K. McKeiver and Ryan Haase announced the closure and reopening plans on social media, according to The Baltimore Banner. The pair said the move is a collaboration with North Avenue Market and the Central Baltimore Partnership, and that it will help elevate their dreams of what a queer bar can be. As part of the deal, The Club Car has signed a 10-year lease in Station North.
What the New Club Car Will Look Like
The redesigned space is planned to include a large dance floor, chandeliers and train car-themed bathrooms — a nod to the bar's name. It will also house a cocktail bar called The Caboose, according to the same report. The Club Car currently hosts art markets, queer history lessons and dance parties, and the owners aim to keep providing dancing, gallery exhibitions and cocktails once the new venue opens.
McKeiver and Haase also said they hope to set up a pop-up cocktail bar in the Parkway Theatre, located across the street from 12 West North Ave., per the Banner's report. The owners said they are thrilled to be an integral part of the newly designed and designated North Avenue Market. The Club Car plans to reopen after January, though the exact timing has not been determined.
A Historic Building's Bigger Overhaul
North Avenue Market originally opened in 1928 and is now undergoing redevelopment and a revival as part of the surrounding arts district. The 57,000-square-foot center includes a 40,000-square-foot basement, according to The Daily Record. The full redevelopment is expected to cost roughly $30 million, with $4.78 million already awarded through Maryland's Historic Tax Credit program, per the Neighborhood Impact Investment Fund. Baltimore Fishbowl has described The Club Car as an interim tenant and queer performance venue within the larger market complex.
Part of a Larger Pattern of Loss and Adaptation
The Club Car's relocation comes against a backdrop of steady attrition for queer nightlife both locally and nationally. Dozens of queer-centered bars and nightclubs have closed in Baltimore in recent decades, the Banner has reported in its coverage of Leon's, which is considered the city's oldest continually operating gay bar. Leon's itself closed temporarily this year after the death of longtime owner Ron Singer, though his heirs hope to reopen the bar soon.
The trend extends well beyond Baltimore. The number of gay bars nationwide dropped 41% between 2002 and 2019, before COVID triggered further closures, per the Banner's reporting. Lesbian bars have fared even worse, falling from 200 in the early 1980s to just 36 today. Nightlife tracker Out x Out has documented 14 gay bar and nightclub closures across 11 U.S. cities this year alone, including the closure of Milwaukee's This Is It!, identified as Wisconsin's oldest gay bar, after 57 years — even as its directory still counts 909 open gay bars and clubs nationwide.
Baltimore has seen this cycle before. Grand Central was sold in 2019 with plans to convert the property into office and retail space, and the Hippo, a Mount Vernon disco club open for 43 years, was expected to close to make way for a CVS. Against that history, The Club Car's move into a historic, tax-credit-backed redevelopment reads less like a shutdown and more like an attempt to secure a longer-term home for queer nightlife in Station North.
