Update: $750,000 renovation converting the cavernous Berthana Building
By: Curmudgeon
The Standard-Examiner has up on line this morning a kind of photo essay on the historic Berthana Building downtown [and purported lynchpin of the planned expansion of the Convention Center] View it here:
Not linked to any currently running story that I can see, but many of the captions relate to on-going renovations turning at least part of the building into The Copper Club, identified as a sports bar. [e.g. one caption: "Lighthouse Lounge which will be the new Copper Club sports bar inside the Berthana building in Ogden on Friday, May 20, 2011." The date refers to the date the picture was taken, it seems, not projected opening date of the Copper Club.]
Presumably a story about the renovations/opening of the club is in prep now. Never having seen the inside of the Berthana or the old ball room, etc. I found the pix interesting. FYI.
Update 5/22/11 7:15 a.m.: Story on the Berthana renovation is now up on the SE website:
Here's the lead:
A $750,000 renovation is converting the cavernous Berthana Building into a downtown entertainment venue scheduled to open in August. Dubbed the Copper Club, the venue will occupy two floors of the Berthana, 315 24th St., and will be operated by Lynda Huddleston and several partners.
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9 comments:
How does a club in the Berthana fit into godfreys plan to build a fieldhouse? What assurances fo the club owners/operators have of getting a liquor license? At one time, perhaps even now, there was a city ordinance onnumber of clubs allowed per city block. It is a large investment, will the owners/operators have the financial backing to build and operate the club?
BR:
What guarantee have they of liq license? Will they have sufficient money to build/operate club?
BR, so long as the owners are not being subsidized by the taxpayers to renovate, open and operate the club, seems to me those questions are entirely their business, not the public's. They can't get a hooch license, or they're under-capitalized and go under, that's the result of their poor business planning. They take the loss, and so it's not really the public's business. It all works out, they reap the benefits of their putting their own money at risk on the project. Public benefits only via increased sales/property taxes.
Provided, again, they're not being subsidized by public funds.
When the owner/developer of the Star building was talking about his plans he spoke of putting a then private club in the building. godfrey was approached to waive the city ordinance liminiting the number of clubs per city block. Only after established club owners on the blick objected did the plan to waive the ordinance go away. the owner/developer of the Star was/is a FOM
It seems I recall that Steve VanWagoner paid $600,000 for the Berhana, before tying his hand at real estate agenting, then serving as prez of the 25th Street Association - one of those jobs that you get because everyone else ran faster than you did. Seems he came from California with a family inheritance burning a hole in his pocket, all starry-eyed during the peak of godfreyism and lost his wad when some sleazy local saw him coming and sold him the old pigeon coop in question.
But I guess his connections got the taxpayers to renovate his building for him. I have to admit though that it is a neat looking place.
I don't know anything about the club density matter, though it occurs to me once the Administration and Council forced the Lighthouse Lounge to close and move, that might have opened up a club slot on that block, que no?
If you want to see some more neat ruins,
Click Here
I was pretty surprised by the pictures, wish I had the means to restore
that to a music venue. I stood in the doorway once and swore I could
hear a big band playing, We need just one classic venue in this state just to remind us of what was once many dance halls
Story on the Berthana renovation is now up on the SE website. Link here. Here's the lead:
A $750,000 renovation is converting the cavernous Berthana Building into a downtown entertainment venue scheduled to open in August. Dubbed the Copper Club, the venue will occupy two floors of the Berthana, 315 24th St., and will be operated by Lynda Huddleston and several partners.
Sorry to interrupt, but did anyone see the story on KSL last night about the Ogden City School District having top three worst performing schools in the entire state when it came to competency testing and 5 of the top 10? Here is the link: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=15670212.
Maybe it's just me, but I have a hard time buying the superintendent of the Ogden City School District's reason for why this is the case. He tries to blame the results on the poverty of the citizens of Ogden City.
If, as the superintendent claims, the reason for the poor performance of these schools is due to the poverty of the residents of Ogden City, why in the hell would the Ogden City School Board agree to extend the tax increment financing that Ogden City receives on Boss Godfrey's pet projectects when they know that money could be used for more teachers and programs to help fix this problem?
Poverty as the reason? Really? And this coming from the very taxing entity that is giving away hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars to support bullshit projects.
Seems to me the problem lies with the priorities of the school board, not the students and the families.
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