Family Bar founder Wayne Clark tells YOUR EX the Auckland venue will remain open under his licensing arrangements while its current owner appeals a decision declining her liquor licence application
Reports that Auckland’s iconic Family Bar could be forced to stop selling alcohol following the rejection of its new owner’s liquor licence application do not mean the end of the K Road institution.
Former owner and Family Bar founder Wayne Clark has stepped in to ensure the venues can continue operating while the decision is appealed.
Clark exclusively tells YOUR EX that Family Bar is open and trading now, while neighbouring G.A.Y Auckland will reopen tonight, after being closed for several months.
The venues have been operating under temporary licensing arrangements involving Clark while applications by current owner Justine Niuhulu (aka Barbie), the sole shareholder of Mavana Group, were being considered.
Following the decision to decline Mavana Group’s applications, Clark says those arrangements will continue while an appeal is lodged.
“These venues are not disappearing,” Clark tells YOUR EX. “Family is open now, and G.A.Y will reopen tonight. We have put arrangements in place that allow the venues to continue operating while the decision is appealed, and at this stage we expect that process to take around six weeks.”
The development follows reports from Stuff’s Hamish McNeilly that liquor licence applications relating to five Karangahape Road venues had been declined following police intervention in the licensing process.
Mavana Group had applied for new on-licences for several K Road venues following its takeover of Clark’s longstanding hospitality businesses late last year. Public alcohol notices show applications during June and July for venues including Family Bar, Family Downunder, G.A.Y Club, Phoenix Venue, Black Velvet Bar (formerly Bamboo Tiger and Shanghai Lips) and Las Vegas Nightclub.
The decision comes less than a year after Clark ended more than two decades at the helm of Auckland’s rainbow nightlife scene.
Clark founded Family Bar on Karangahape Road in 2005 and built it into one of the country’s best-known LGBTQ+ venues. Over the following 20 years, his collection of businesses grew to include G.A.Y Auckland, Pink Pony, Bamboo Tiger, Phoenix and other venues before he sold the operation in December 2025.
The months since the change of ownership have been turbulent.
G.A.Y Auckland, Pink Pony and Phoenix have all faced extended closures connected with fire and safety compliance issues at their shared 258 to 264 Karangahape Road building. In May, YOUR EX reported that G.A.Y was closed while remedial work followed the suspicious fire that broke out inside the club in November 2025. But ongoing fire and safety compliance issues continued to affect the three venues.
Now the new operator’s liquor licence applications have suffered another setback.
However, Clark’s intervention means the immediate picture is significantly less bleak than yesterday’s reports may have suggested.
YOUR EX will continue to follow developments.
