Surry Hills gay cruising club TRADE has been sold to the owner of Trough, who will run it as a sex-on-premises venue and nightclub for all people – not just men who have sex with men.
Trough founder Nik Dimopoulo, 51 and gay, confirmed to GSN the sale and a major renovation of the venue, but would not be drawn on the sale price.
It comes after the TRADE business was in late October listed on Facebook Marketplace for $80,000. The listing was for the business behind the venue but not its lease. It sold in November.
“Large night club over 4 levels with 24-hour liquor license for sale,” the now-deleted listing said.
“Located in a great position in Crown Street, Surry Hills. Priced to sell for a quick walk-in, walk-out sale.”
Once known as HeadQuarters, TRADE was a dance venue, bar, cruise club and shop. It was run by Dean White, who bought it in 2018 and also ran Bang Clothing next door to ARQ.
Dimopoulos said he anticipated that the venue would open under its new name “Trough X” in mid-February.
He has been running Trough events in Melbourne and London for several years and plans to turn the Sydney venue into something that emulates Berlin nightclubs, many of which offer so-called “dark rooms” for sex.

He said Trough events leaned heavily on techno music, which he believes is a lot more accessible now than “back in the day [when] it was harder to get people to listen” to the music genre.
Although Trough has previously run the odd event at Sydney nightclubs, he said the parties were unable to be put on in the way he wanted.
“Running Trough in Sydney has been very difficult with the clubs,” he said
“I’ve had to always combine [the nightclub event with] a sauna after-party to offer the ‘sex’ part of the event.
“It was always a real struggle.
“And so it made sense to be able to take over a venue where there was a sex-on-premises [licence].”
While Trough has predominantly been a male-orientated party for a long time, Dimopoulos said he wanted to “make very clear” that Trough X was for all genders, “as long as people are comfortable being in it if it’s predominantly a male space”.
“We wouldn’t knock back anyone,” he said. “We’re allowing the space to be more open than just a male-dominating space, even though it will be predominantly. We just want to get that information out there and just slowly sort of see how that flows.”
He said Trough events were typically made up of about 3 per cent women.
On the weekends, he said the Trough X venue will be a dance party nightclub across four floors, while from Sunday to Thursday it will be a cruise bar, cruise club and a space for hire.
“We’re opening it to the community,” Dimopoulos said. “There’s a fair bit of interest from the fetish community wanting to hire the space…”
It will have a 300-person capacity, sell alcohol on the ground level, and have the option for two dance floors. It will also feature Dimopoulos’s artwork from the past 20 years. “I see it as like a little gallery or museum,” he said.
TRADE’s owner Dean White, who is gay and 55, said he was keen to sell the business following WorldPride. He said COVID, the opening of rival sex-on-premises venue Bunker, and the Mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) scare all affected his business. “I wanted to get out desperately,” White said.
“Through COVID, I just think guys got used to not going to clubs, sex clubs and bars; they got used to hosting house parties. After the second COVID lockdown, which was through the summer period, it was difficult to sort of get the boys back into that sort of sex-on-premises [venue],” he said, adding that he intended to still run his men-only BARCODE events, which TRADE hosted, at Trough X.
Although TRADE did quite well during WorldPride, White knew it was time to sell after it was over. “It was the right thing … for me to sort of move aside and let new energy in,” White said.
“There was a real lull in business after WorldPride, so I thought now is the time to [sell the] venue. I also felt it needed a major renovation.
“The last six months [of trading as TRADE], you’d probably say were financially not good.
“We went from long weekend parties of 400-500 people to literally 40 to 50 people – a 90 per cent decline.
“It was that steep.
“I just think it was time for a change. It was time for a fresh new start. And Nik was the right person. I’m thrilled that he’s [purchased it]. … He’s a friend of mine. … I’ve known [him] for 25 years.”
White opened Bang Clothing in Melbourne in 1996 and brought the business to Sydney 10 years later. In March 2022, Bang’s standalone store closed and moved into TRADE. Bang was the first store in Australia to import international gay brands like Andrew Christian, Pump and Addicted.
White, who now lives in Queensland, said he was in talks with Dimopoulos to potentially stock a Bang-like retail store at Trough X, although this has not been finalised.
White said the venue’s combined 24-hour liquor and sex-on-premises licence was rare. “I feel that it is very important for Sydney’s gay scene that we don’t lose this, as we will never get a unique licence like this ever again.
“I was offered a lot more money to sell TRADE to straight swingers clubs and brothels that wanted the sex plus bar licence. I did what was best for the Sydney gay scene – sell to Nik and keep it for us as a large gay club.”
Dimopoulos said he was looking for staff with personality and experience, including a bar manager and cleaner.
Gay Sydney News editor