Renovations at 1600 Main Street would cost $250,000.
The building at 1600 Main St., Springfield, that housed the former Asylumn nightclub, would be a German beer garden if a plan proposed by the New England Farm Workers Council passes muster.SPRINGFIELD – The former Asylum nightclub at 1600 Main St. could get a new life as a German beer garden run by The Fort and The Student Prince Restaurant if the city accepts a redevelopment proposal from the New England Farm Workers Council.
The New England Farm Workers Council’s $450,000 bid was the only one submitted for the project. The bids were opened Monday afternoon in City Hall.
Brian M. Connors, deputy director of economic development for Springfield, said the city is under no obligation to accept the bid. There will be a review process and the final decision will rest with the City Council. Connors expects a decision sometime in September.
The building was constructed in the 1930s as the Enterprise department store and later served as another dime store for a time before becoming the state unemployment office in the 1960s and then the Asylum nightclub, Connors said.
The Asylum closed in 2004 after being cited as a public safety and fire hazard. In 2009, the city bought the property for $630,00.
In 2011, the city spent $1.3 million in state and local funds to demolish the rear two-thirds of the building and gut the remaining 13,573 square feet, remove asbestos and install a sprinkler system in the unfinished shell.
Heriberto “Herbie” Flores, president of the New England Farm Workers Council said the 1600 Main Street project is part of the council’s economic development mission and a natural extension of its other real-estate holdings in the neighborhood.
“You need to create an environment where people of all races and cultures can feel comfortable,” Flores said.
Those properties include the building housing The Fort, located next door to 1600 Main which the Farm Workers Council bought in October 2010 for $2 million. The New England Farm Workers Council also bought the Paramount building, known as the Massasoit Block in March 2011 for $1.7 million.
The Council also recently took over the Stone Wall Tavern along the railroad tracks.
Flores said the Farm Workers Council is stepping because no one else is willing to take on these projects.
Renovations at 1600 Main Street would cost $250,000. Flores said there will be space in the building for other businesses beside the beer garden.
Rudi R. Scherff, managing partner of The Fort and The Student Prince Restaurant, said The Bier Garten at 1600 Main Street would be an indoor-outdoor facility selling light fare like sausages, hamburgers and the like as well as beer. He also envisions light entertainment, perhaps an accordion player.
“On a day like this what would be nicer than to sit outside and have a beer with some nice wurst and an optional hunk of sauerkraut ,” Scherff said Monday afternoon. “As you go through downtown right now there are not a lot of venues that cater to people much over the age of 25. There is us, there is Theodore’s.”