HOUSTON – The lights are off, the celebrities are gone and the party is over. Club Nomadic, a 64,000-square-foot temporary building, was home to the biggest concerts in Houston during Super Bowl LI.
Now the main attraction is the cleanup crew as they work to tear down the big structure by March 1.
“It will be over in about 28 days and we’ll bring this thing down to the ground,” said Jack Murphy, president of Nomadic Entertainment. “We have our construction crews inside now, taking down the interior mezzanines. Then we start wrapping the building and bringing that down as well.”
Murphy said about a total of 27,000 fans flocked to the temporary club during Super Bowl weekend to see Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift and the Chainsmokers.
“We had record crowd. We pushed to 9,000 people each night so that’s pretty impactful for the very first year of a launch of this program,” said Murphy. “We really couldn’t be happier. This is the first time we launched this brand-new facility. We got to bring it to Houston for the very first time and we had three great nights of entertainment.”
Murphy is no stranger to the NFL and the Super Bowl. He’s been hosting parties at the big game since 2005. He wouldn’t say how much it cost to create, operate and tear down the venue but said it was a big price tag.
“Oh, I can say I dropped $5 or $6 million just back to the local Houston community, but that doesn’t get me all the way there,” said Murphy when it comes to how much Club Nomadic cost. He said the building was manufactured here in Houston.
Before the club opened, there were concerns the party would come to a halt because of a lack of permits.
Club Nomadic received its final permits the day before its first show last Thursday. Murphy said what happened was not unusual when it comes to building temporary structures and that the city of Houston helped them out.
“The community could not be any more supportive, from the locals to the mayor’s office to building and safety to fire and police,” said Murphy who complimented the city and said he would be leaving with new and lifelong friendships. “We couldn’t be happier. We had a great experience here in Houston.”
Initially, there were concerns about the club, because there’s limited parking, but the club paid for shuttles and many concertgoers took Uber and taxis. Murphy said there were some hiccups the first night with long Uber lines, but as the nights went on, they were able to work out the kinks. Home developer Saleem “Sam” Qazi, president of Zenigh Signature Homes, said overall, parking was smooth in the neighborhood.
“It was lovely, so much fun. A lot of people came. No chaos,” said Qazi. “Parking was easy. Everyone cooperated, everyone let everybody park anywhere they wanted to. There was no complain."
Murphy said he hopes to have more events in Houston in the future.
The company Lovett Commercial owns the land on which Club Nomadic was built. The company said they plan to develop the lot in the future.