by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The City Council will decide Tuesday whether to let a local black fraternity proceed with plans to redevelop an historic jazz club that could become the centerpiece for a conceived LaVilla entertainment district.
The Finance Committee unanimously approved a deadline extension for the NU Beta Sigma chapter of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity to complete exterior renovations to a former Ashley Street club known as Genovar’s Hall. Fraternity attorney Reginald Estell told the committee that $275,000 in projected State funds would allow the exterior work to be complete by April 2005.
A previous extension called for the project’s completion — interior included — by September 2005. However, Estell said funding delays made that timeline impossible. The ordinance gives the fraternity until 2007 to finish interior work, a schedule that Estell said would be “no problem.”
The fraternity took over the project in 2001. Two years later, little work has been done. Finance chair Warren Alvarez said the halting pace has drawn criticism from taxpayers.
“This thing has been dragging on as long as I’ve been here,” said Alvarez, who was elected in 1999. “The original deadline was 2002.
“We’re getting a lot of criticism from people who want us to get this thing done. Right now, it looks like steel beams, holding up a bunch of bricks.”
Council member Reggie Fullwood, who asked the committee to expedite review to get the ordinance to a Council vote, said funding was in place for the first time and said the fraternity had its own reasons to get the project rolling.
“They want it complete as soon as possible, too,” said Fullwood. “It’s a source of culture and a possible source of revenue. I don’t think they’ll drag their feet at all.”
If exterior work is not complete by the deadline, the agreement calls for the City to take possession of the property.
The building at the corner of Ashley and Jefferson streets has been a grocery, a pawn shop and a jazz club since it was built in 1895. As the Lenape Bar, the building hosted Ray Charles as part of a bustling jazz district, which also featured performers such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.
The fraternity wants to resurrect the entertainment district with the 9,500-square–foot building as its centerpiece. The proposed LaVilla Experience envisions Genovar’s as a jazz restaurant, a museum dedicated to the area’s culture and possibly a relocated Brewster’s Hospital all surrounding a park named for civil rights leader James Weldon Johnson.
Funding for interior improvements have yet to be identified, but Council member Jerry Holland said the renovated exterior could lead to investor interest to help pay for the extensive renovations.
Estell told Holland that the fraternity could “potentially” seek City money to complete interior work.