The story
The location was originally a grocery store from 1921 into the 1940s. In the 1940s, it was converted into a nightclub called the "Cotton Club", entirely unrelated to the Harlem original. This was soon replaced by "The Greenwich Village Inn", the "Rue Angel", and finally "The Last Call" during the 1940s. From 1951 to 1969, the location was a bar called "The Melody Lounge", in 1969, it became "Filthy McNasty's", and in the 1980s, a jazz club called "The Central".
"The Central" was best known for its Tuesday jam nights where various well-known musicians such as Joe Cocker, Brian Setzer and Jeff Baxter performed and hung out along with others in the music industry. It also hosted many local music acts such as Chuck E. Weiss who was frequently accompanied by the Goddamn Liars. In 1993, the club was close to shutting down when Weiss suggested to Depp that he should revitalize the spot and rename it "The Viper Room". Tom Waits also had a hand in redeveloping the spot.
The venue
Despite the being the location River Phoenix's death just two and a half months after opening, the club became and remained a hangout for Hollywood's most popular young actors and musicians. Adam Duritz, the lead singer of Counting Crows, worked as a Viper Room bartender in late 1994 and early 1995 to escape his newfound fame.
Ownership
As part of the settlement of a lawsuit against Johnny Depp and four others, involving allegations of mismanagement of profits, Depp relinquished his ownership of the Viper Room in 2004. The club changed hands multiple times between 2004 and 2016; the club is currently owned by Viper Room Holdings, Ltd. CEO James Cooper.
Intellectual property and lawsuits
Another nightclub formerly called "The Viper Room" exists in Cincinnati. That club changed its name to "The Poison Room" on January 1, 2006, after they were told by the West Hollywood Viper Room to stop using the name. Another "Viper Room" in Portland was also told to stop using the name under threat of a trademark lawsuit, with the Viper Room's former owner claiming that "every dollar they make is the result of using our name". Abroad, there is also a legal brothel in Brisbane called "The Viper Room" and nightclubs boasting the name (or a similar one) in Harrogate, Sheffield, Stockholm, and Vienna.
Until February 2009, there was a nightclub with the same name in Melbourne; it was closed down due to a spate of violent incidents that included two shootings as well as license breaches and the arrest of a co-owner on drug charges. On April 16, 2011, a nightclub named "The Viper Room" opened its doors in the city of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. The club is named after the club in Hollywood and is decorated in the same style as the American club. In 2016, The Viper Room began issuing cease and desist notices to bootleg merchandise sellers on eBay and other online storefronts.
Redevelopment plans
In 2018, Silver Creek Development purchased four retail properties comprising the entire block of Sunset Boulevard between San Vicente Boulevard to Larrabee Street, including the building which houses the Viper Room, for $80 million.
In 2019, they announced plans to demolish all the existing buildings in order to make way for a 15-story, 369,000-square foot, 200 ft tall, mixed-use building, featuring "a large interior opening through two connected towers", and which would include a gym, a movie screening room, a 15th floor restaurant, a rooftop pool, a 115-room hotel, ground-floor commercial space, as well as 31 condominiums, 10 units of affordable housing, and parking for 269 vehicles. The new building would also feature "a new home" for the Viper Room. Pending approval from the City of West Hollywood, the company said they anticipated to begin construction in 2021, with completion set for 2024.
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However in March 2022, after hiring a new architecture firm and having "taken public input on the project", Silver Creek Development unveiled a new, revised design for the project, slightly scaled down to 12 stories, with, 26 condominiums, 8 affordable housing units, a 113-room hotel, as well as retail space, eateries, cafes, a recording studio space, and a "re-designed music venue" with "memorabilia from the original Viper Room" to feature throughout; Silver Creek also own the Viper Room business and IP rights. The developers mentioned a potential completion date of 2025. In August 2022, Silver Creek Development secured a $62 million loan for the project from Cottonwood, an L.A.-based private equity and real estate investment firm.
In 2023, the plan was revised again, now with a proposed 11 stories with 62 apartments, 14 affordable units, and a 90-room hotel. Eventually a version of the proposal was submitted to the city council, and in August 2024, was narrowly approved in a 3–2 vote. The two dissenting members "expressed concerns that the property developer would be able to finish the project."
By May 2025, the project was in foreclosure, and records showed the developers had defaulted on more than $69 million dollars of debt. However Silver Creek secured another $71 million predevelopment loan from Centennial Bank and Crestline Investors just before the site was scheduled to go to auction in June, thus reviving the project once more.
The redevelopment proposal has attracted criticism and pushback since its inception. On multiple occasions, members of the local community have expressed concerns about potential impacts on the neighborhood. Elyse Eisenberg, a local resident, said the developers had "sidestepped the question about community pushback", failed to address their concerns, and "kept pushing through the same project with superficial tweaks but never received support from the community for this project".
The project has also drawn opposition from those concerned about preserving the Viper Room as a significant site of both local and "rock 'n' roll" history. At a public hearing, one resident remarked "Tourists want the real funky Viper Room, where River Phoenix died. They want the Whisky, where the Doors, Guns N' Roses, Johnny Rivers and Motley Crue started out". At another meeting Matt Harkenrider, a resident artist at the Viper Room, described the venue as "the only place I, for the first time, have been able to grow a following and actually make money from my art," and noted that people who visit the Sunset Strip are there for the history.
In November 2025, Silver Creek Development said they are "now aiming for a 2029 opening, without putting a firm date to the start of demolition or vertical work."
As of 2026, there is no scheduled demolition date, and the club is still a popular live music venue which has continued to operate as normal.
From Wikipedia’s article on The Viper Room, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4