The creator and owner of Blood Manor, Jim Lorenzo, sent me a text the other night when he saw the story — and the comments — about the crowds last Saturday. He asked to give me a tour and allow him to explain their setup, covid plans and queuing arrangement. Of course I agreed, and I have laid out what I learned below as straight up as I could muster. (There’s a feature in today’s Times if you want that version.)
Lorenzo warned me that Thursday nights are much quieter than weekends (he had 311 tickets sold last night and expects 700 on Saturday) but I wanted to get there before the weekend; I will swing by Saturday to see what’s going on then as well.
But first I feel I have to mention this incredibly sad fact. Lorenzo’s son died of cancer this past August, newly married and in his mid-30s, and last February, when the business applied for a liquor license, his son had just been hospitalized. I can barely imagine — and don’t really want to — what it’s like to lose a child and I offer our collective condolences to him, as a business owner in the community.
But we also have to compartmentalize and get back to the issue at hand, as he has had to do in order to run his business. So:
THE BACKGROUND
Lorenzo, 62, a longtime events producer who also operates Flex Events, a crossfit program in Long Beach, opened Blood Manor in Chelsea in 2003. It operated for seven years on West 27th between 10th and 11th until the building was redeveloped; it then moved up the street from City Winery on Varick and Vandam, where it ran for another seven years until that building was razed. It opened at 359 Broadway, between Leonard and Franklin, in 2017.
The business is open 19 days a year, most of those around Halloween. They have in the past done a Christmas event (Krampus) and a Bloody Valentine event. Lorenzo rents the building for the year and it is vacant the rest of the time.
In February, he applied for a liquor license, causing residents who live nearby to start a change.org petition against the move, garnering more than 500 signatures. In March, they withdrew the application.
CAPACITYThe occupancy in non-covid times is 275, but for now they are keeping it to 90, including the 30 actors, so that means 60 patrons are in the space at any one time — 45 people per floor. (The business is allowed to operate at 25 percent capacity according to the state guidance for low risk indoor arts and entertainment, like museums, announced by the governor on Sept. 1. Why this does not allow concert venues to sell tickets for music is a mystery to me.) Customers are ticketed for a timed entry every half hour. General admission tickets are $40. There is a ticket booth in the curb in front, and you can walk up and get tickets.
STAFFING ON THE STREET
On Thursday Lorenzo had nine people working on the sidewalk in Blood Manor hoodies, and several of his actors wandered through the stalls as a sort of “preshow.” On Friday and Saturday he said he will have 16 staff members on the street.
OPERATING HOURS AND DATES
Blood Manor will be open Thursday through Sunday until Nov. 1. Hours are generally 6p till 1a, but they close earlier on Thursdays and Sundays. It is most crowded earlier in the night, according to his ticket logs.
COVID PREPARATIONS
The precautions for the coronavirus are mandated by the state and the business hired a pandemic consultant who prepared a nine-page plan (I read it and have a copy if anyone has questions). “We were hypersensitive to covid because of my son. I don’t take it lightly,” Lorenzo said. All actors are wearing N95 masks under specially designed latex costume masks, and Lorenzo installed air filters and UVC lights throughout the space; his manager, a theater director, told me she sprays down the interior surfaces once an hour, in between groups.
QUEUING ON THE SIDEWALK
Patrons are grouped in “stalls” between barricades with their own party, whether that is one or eight. The stalls are marked with the time of entrance and extend south of Leonard, halfway down the block towards Worth. RIP (a riff on VIP) ticket holders, who pay $20 extra to enter any time they arrive, are in stalls north of the storefront. Lorenzo said he was told by the city that he can have the entire curbside space between Franklin and Leonard for queuing as of this weekend.
THE LIQUOR LICENSE APPLICATION
Lorenzo was applying for the liquor license last February so he could host events in the off season, or 330 days a year. The other two iterations of Blood Manor covered their costs, but this one — the biggest of the three — cost Lorenzo nearly $1 million to build out, twice the cost he had anticipated. On the night that neighbors witnessed men urinating in doorways and more, he said the space was rented out for a 25th birthday party and not operated by his staff.
Either way, he dropped the idea when his son got sick and when he realized community opposition would be fierce. “What happened in February put us in a very bad light,” Lorenzo said. (This is an understatement.) “We started off on the wrong foot.”
THE EXPERIENCE
A tape of a ghoul explaining covid regulations plays continually outside the front door. Actors also weave through the waiting patrons, eliciting plenty of screams. The actors all have an odd stillness about them. I guess that’s a thing with the undead.
Lorenzo walked me through the space before customers were allowed in — I had to be convinced since this is in no way my bag — but the actors were already in place and ready for the fright business. Patrons wind through two floors that are of course dimly lit with lots of hidden corners and creepy nooks and crannies. The actors are crouching or skulking between animated models that are lifelike enough that I had continually question which were real and which were human and would be ready to pounce at any minute.
The director was kind enough to ask them to go easy on me via walkie talkie, but I was still a sweaty mess when it was over. I did not, however, wet myself. Those who do get a free T-shirt.
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October 23, 2020 at 09:02PM
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Examining the crowds and the screams at Blood Manor - Tribeca Citizen
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