The new owners of the Railway Club say the historic Dunsmuir Street watering hole will reopen with a different name — and it won’t be a live music venue.
The club, which served as a launching pad for many Vancouver bands and a favourite stage for touring acts like The Tragically Hip, k.d. lang, Cowboy Junkies and Los Lobos, shut down last March after 84 years of operations.
Jeff Donnelly and Chad Cole, of Vancouver’s Donnelly Group, have picked up the lease on the location. They plan to renovate and reinvent the space as a community pub.
It won’t be the Railway Club you remember.
“We’ve hosted lots of live music at our pubs over the years, but unfortunately it’s not going to be a core element of this new pub,” Cole said in a release. “We’re looking at some authentic ways we can pay tribute to the history of the location, and we’re going to work with the local live music community to keep the spirit of Railway Club alive.”
The Donnelly Group, which counts nine pubs and three cocktail bars among its Vancouver properties, says renovations at the Railway Club location should be completed by spring.
“We know what the Railway Club meant to the city,” said Cole, “we’re planning to donate historic fixtures and interior elements to the Museum of Vancouver as a way of preserving its legacy.”
The club has sat empty since March 29, 2016 after former owner Steve Silman failed in efforts to sell the venue. Silman, who purchased the club in 2008, put the club up for sale in December, 2015 for $299,000, but found no takers.
