A Mumford & Sons member is opening a new venue in Williamsburg's Domino Sugar Factory

Sonia Rao

Published Nov 13, 2026 at 10:01 a.m. ET

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The brick exterior of the Domino Sugar Factory.

Max Touhey

Sonia Rao

Published Nov 13, 2026 at 10:01 a.m. ET

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Williamsburg was Ben Lovett’s gateway to New York. The British multi-instrumentalist, known for cofounding the folk-rock band Mumford & Sons, fell for the city immediately upon playing his first show here at an art gallery on North 6th Street.

It was 2008, and the indie music scene was thriving. He moved to the city a couple years later and began frequenting the edgy music venues scattered throughout the neighborhood.

“I have some great memories of crowd-surfing to Twin Peaks at a Glasslands show,” he told Gothamist.

Glasslands closed in 2015. A considerable number of Williamsburg dance clubs and concert venues followed. While Lovett still finds much to admire in places like Baby’s All Right, he said the continued closures strengthened his desire to “protect” the music scene.

“These spaces are essential to our humanity,” he said. “I don’t think people would want to live in New York if all you did was live here and work here. What you do with your third amount of time, your third space … is really important to consider.”

And so, Lovett said, he decided to do something about it: He’s opening an all-ages venue on the Williamsburg waterfront called Domino. Set to open in April 2027, the 750-capacity space will occupy the ground floor of the historic Domino Sugar Refinery building. Visitors will enter on River Street and walk through its preserved structures, such as a 240-foot-tall chimney, to attend concerts, comedy shows, film screenings and other planned events.

Domino was already in the works when Lovett learned that another beloved venue, Music Hall of Williamsburg, would be closing its doors at the end of 2026. The musician, who is developing his new space through his company tvg Hospitality, said he hopes for it to help foster the city’s creative community. He said Domino is the eighth venue that he has either built or operated. He is partnering on it with Emerson Hospitality, which opened the West Village steakhouse Graciela over the summer.

“In the hospitality and entertainment industry, you’re providing a centerpiece for people’s lives,” Lovett said. Music venues like Domino are “where they’re going to go to form a new friendship or fall in love or hear a lyric that suddenly unlocks a feeling. I’m all about protecting these spaces as best as we can and not allowing them to become the next, like, Gucci store.”

Major developers have flocked to the Williamsburg waterfront over the years, sparking accusations of gentrification and public debates over who gets to use the space and how. Two Trees, the management company that owns the Refinery building, landed a state tax break on a different waterfront housing complex earlier this year.

Lovett said he believed Domino would be the final tenant in the Refinery building, which otherwise houses office space, a glass-domed penthouse for events and an Equinox fitness club. He wants his venue to be an accessible space amid Williamsburg’s ever-evolving landscape.

“We need to make sure that we’re not losing the cultural side of Williamsburg,” Lovett said. “So we’re going to work really hard to put a stake in the ground at Domino and make sure that people know Williamsburg is culturally as relevant … and important to the city as ever.”

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Sonia Rao

Sonia Rao is a culture reporter for WNYC and Gothamist. She previously covered entertainment and breaking news at The Washington Post. Got a tip? Email [email protected].

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