NORTHAMPTON — The World War II Club has a buyer.
Two people from Signature Sounds, the Northampton-based record label and concert producer, have a purchase and sale agreement to buy the building and its liquor license.
Jim Olsen, Signature Sounds president, and Peter Hamelin, director of live music, hope to close the deal by May and open the new business — which has yet to be named — by the end of the year.
“Our company has been known to provide quality entertainment at a number of venues in the Valley,” Olsen said. “We just want the opportunity to expand our offerings and bring more entertainment to downtown Northampton.”
The sale is contingent, however, on the city enacting a zoning change to allow for nightclubs, something it has been considering.
The Conz Street building, also known as the Deuce, is currently home to a bar and a room for special events and the club has both veterans and non-veterans as members.
“It’s sad that it’s changing,” said Steven Connor, president the World War II Veterans’ Association of Hampshire County, the organization that owns and runs the club. “But this is the best way for it to change.”
It was listed last year with Gallagher Real Estate for $899,000. “We have been struggling financially … It’s a struggle to keep the doors open,” said Connor, after the property was initially listed.
“Our goal is to maintain the World War II Club as an entertainment venue, rental facility and community center,” Hamelin said. “I think that our vision is to maintain some of the aspects of the World War II Club — to continue to support the veterans with their weekly lunches and monthly meetings,” he said.
“For the most part, we’re going to try to keep everything that happens there,” Olsen said.
Much of the focus will be on music. “We’re in the music business. We love live music,” Hamelin said. “There will probably be more emphasis on live, original music.”
Connor said that the buyers are looking to close down and renovate the club and then bring back the club’s regulars, and that some of the club’s staff will be staying on as well.
“They’re really not looking to make any drastic change,” he said.
As for the future of the association, Connor said that it isn’t known right now if it will continue on or dissolve once the building is sold.
The area is zoned as “neighborhood business,” where nightclubs are not allowed, said Carolyn Misch, assistant director of the city’s planning and sustainability department. The city has proposed changing the zoning of nine parcels on Conz Street, including the World War II Club’s property, to “central business.”
“We’ve also been talking long-term to rezone all of the corridor of Conz Street and Pleasant Street to central business,” Misch said.
Without the zoning change, the planned sale would be in question.
“If for some reason the zoning was not approved for this area of town, we would not be able to operate our business as planned there,” Hamelin said.
In the purchase and sale agreement, Hamelin said, “one of the contingencies is that we will be able to continue to operate as a club, a venue.”
A public hearing on the proposed zoning change will be held on Monday evening as part of the City Council Committee on Legislative Matters meeting.
Staff writer Bera Dunau contributed to this report.
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com.