Combined-use, four-storey growth proposed for website of venerable, much-loved Blues music venue
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The proprietor of Inglewood’s Blues Can says the times are numbered for the enduring 13-year-old music venue after an indication went up yesterday a few proposed redevelopment of the property.
Blues Can proprietor Greg Smith opened the venue in 2010 on the outdated website of the Inglewood Stage and Grill, which moved down the road. On Monday, The Metropolis of Calgary erected an indication exterior the constructing in search of public suggestions for a brand new growth: a mixed-use, four-storey constructing that may embody retail on the bottom degree and 30 dwelling items. Developer Paul Battistella of Battistella Developments is listed because the applicant contact. Smith, who started leasing the constructing 13 years in the past, mentioned he’s recognized the positioning was in danger for redevelopment for practically two years.
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“We knew he had purchased the property and we knew he was a condominium developer,” Smith says. “He instructed us that we will keep till the bulldozers are idling out again. One of many issues everyone is worried about is timing. He doesn’t know and I don’t know and numerous it’s as much as the town.”
The event utility is in “circulation”, which implies it’s being reviewed by the town’s planning division, which generally takes 11 to 12 weeks, in keeping with the town.
Whereas Smith has not been given a date for when he has to vacate the constructing, he predicts the venue might shut as early as the autumn. Nobody was accessible at Battistella Developments on Wednesday to remark.
“I ought to get one other patio season after which we’re accomplished,” Smith says.
‘There aren’t any extra Hail Marys left’
“The Music Mile simply bought shorter,” he added, referring to the mile-long stretch from the King Eddy to the Blues Can alongside ninth Avenue S.E. that features quite a few stay venues.
Smith says the venue has hosted roughly 8,500 reveals since opening its doorways and has been averaging 575 a yr.
In a message to patrons put up on the Blues Can web site Tuesday night, Smith wrote: “We’re in talks with some true followers of The Blues Can which have sources far past what we now have and have our fingers crossed, so don’t lose hope.”
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However, on Wednesday, he mentioned the venue — at the very least on the present location — will shut.
“There aren’t any Hail Marys left,” he mentioned.
Smith hasn’t dominated out opening the venue some other place however mentioned the necessities of a music venue are very particular.
“The necessities of a blues membership aren’t simply ‘any strip mall that occurs to be vacant,’ ” he says. “There are very, very particular necessities. This was an actual unicorn property when I discovered it and I knew it and so I acted on it. Till such time one other as unicorn rears its ugly head, it’s not more likely to occur.”
The Blues Can has been a labour of affection for Smith. Like many stay venues, the nightclub struggled through the pandemic. In Could 2021, a telethon-like “Save the Blues!” fundraiser was held.
Smith did put out an enchantment to the general public, hoping somebody would buy the constructing who didn’t wish to “flip it into condos.”
“There have been a few individuals who tried, however they had been underfunded and inexperienced and it wasn’t going to occur that means,” he says.
He did say he was in early talks with an unnamed get together about constructing a brand new venue designed particularly for the Blues Can, which is the “closest to a Hail Mary” The Blues Can has.
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