Zouk Group to open nightlife entertainment concepts in Tokyo and Los Angeles

After launching Zouk Las Vegas last year, Zouk Group has announced that it will be opening a club concept in  Japan’s capital city of Tokyo later this year, as well as one in Los Angeles next year.  

The Zouk brand, which was born in Singapore in 1991 and also has a presence in Malaysia, has a strategy of entering “key strategic markets” in “gateway cities”, CEO Andrew Li told CNA Lifestyle, making Tokyo and Los Angeles ideal locations for taking the brand further and wider.

Zouk Tokyo aims to open in September or October, Li said, and will be situated within Granbell Square, a lifestyle and hospitality destination in the Ginza district. The project is a partnership with Japan’s Belluna, creators of the Granbell Hotel Group, which owns and operates hotel chains across Japan as well as around the world in countries including the US, Maldives and Sri Lanka.

The Corridor Street address in Ginza will house not only the club but also a boutique hotel, spa, restaurants and karaoke rooms. Li shared that the group is also looking at operating one of the restaurants, but will first focus on growing their team in Tokyo.

Li expects the club to have a capacity of about 800 to 1,000 people, “which, in Tokyo, is a very large capacity,” he said. It will feature a mezzanine lounge space overlooking the main club, which will have its own concept but can be combined to make up a “superclub”.

Like the clubs in Singapore and around the world, the decor centrepiece will be a “mothership” built by the same designer who has worked on all the projects; this “fourth iteration” of the mothership will feature “kinetic movement” as the club focuses on “forward-thinking” audio, visual and lighting effects that will “elevate the entire feel”, Li revealed. “It’s something that’s going to blow the scene out of the water.”

And, as the Zouk brand has always put art at the forefront – for example, “here in Singapore, at Capital, we had an art curator come round and decorate spaces” – “we are now looking at having some Japanese artists help design the facade or art pieces inside the club,” Li said. “I think art, music and culture are all connected.”

He added that the time is right to enter the Tokyo market also seeing as “Singaporeans love Tokyo and Japan. When Japan opened for travel, I think it was bigger news than when the US opened.” The group is also looking to expand its reach in F&B with more collaborations in Japan.  

As for opening in Los Angeles, that will take place in March or April next year, Li said. In partnership with lifestyle hospitality company sbe, Zouk LA will be located in what is currently sbe’s Nightingale club on La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood. The 6,500 sq ft space will be redesigned by Christian Schulz and team of boutique design agency Studio Collective.

The Tokyo and Los Angeles projects are “extremely exciting” because they are partnerships with third-party operators, a first for the Zouk brand and testament of its draw, Li said. And, while they have had offers to open elsewhere, their strategy is to focus on “gateway cities”, he said, adding that going forward, Miami and Ibiza could be good targets.

“Globalisation started when we branched out to Las Vegas – it propelled the Zouk brand onto the global stage because only a few nightlife entertainment brands expand globally, and they are usually concentrated in Europe, the US or Asia.” This, he said, opened the door to Japan. And, “To have clubs in places such as Singapore, Malaysia, Las Vegas, and soon, Tokyo and Los Angeles, puts us into only three to five brands that have managed to do that.”