Inside Avant Gardner’s Yearlong Payment Crisis That Led to $155 Million Bankruptcy
When Avant Gardner filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, it marked the end of a slow-motion financial collapse that had been unfolding for over a year.
It seems the company behind Brooklyn Mirage, one of New York’s most beloved electronic music venues, didn’t just suddenly run out of money. It bled cash through a thousand small cuts, creating a house of cards that finally crashed down earlier in August.
The warning signs were written in the company’s payment patterns. Avant Gardner experienced consistently high Days Beyond Terms (a key metric measuring how late companies pay their bills) over the 12 months prior to the bankruptcy filing, indicating “ongoing cash flow instability,” Ragini Bhalla, Creditsafe’s Head of Brand and spokesperson, tells EDM.com.
Avant Gardner’s DBT started at a concerning 43 days in August 2024, per data provided by Creditsafe. While there was improvement to 15-16 days in April and May 2025, the figure climbed back to 20 days by June, signaling persistent liquidity challenges.
More troubling was the company’s trade payment breakdown, which revealed a growing pile of “severely overdue” obligations, Bhalla said. By March 2025, over 21% of bills were 61-90 days overdue, while nearly a quarter remained unpaid for 91 days or more as Avant Gardner struggled to meet operational expenses. It was essentially financial triage, where vendors become unwitting lenders in the company’s desperate attempt to stay afloat.
The financial crisis was compounded by operational setbacks, most notably contentious permit issues and safety inspection failures that prevented the opening of Avant Gardner’s newly constructed Brooklyn Mirage venue for the 2025 season after a $30 million redesign. The company had ambitious plans for a revamped space in East Williamsburg, but the books painted a picture that no amount of marketing could fix.
The renovation plans never materialized and Brooklyn Mirage’s proprietors ultimately cancelled the venue’s entire season of shows, dealing a death knell to its expected revenues. With $155.3 million in debt and no clear path to profitability, Avant Gardner’s hand was forced.
Now, after ousting beleaguered CEO Josh Wyatt, Avant Gardner has installed renowned nightlife veteran Gary Richards as its new chief executive “to stabilize the company’s finances and bring the Mirage back for 2026 and beyond.” A recent filing for a Temporary Place of Assembly Certificate with the New York City Department of Buildings requests activation beginning June 1st, 2026.
In the meantime, the stateside electronic dance music community will be watching Avant Gardner’s restructuring closely, not for the financial engineering, but to see if the company can truly overcome its checkered past.
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