FROM CONCERTS TO COMMERCE
Why a Danbury bank wants to buy and demolish Tuxedo Junction
DANBURY — Five years ago, there was hope in downtown Danbury that the defunct Tuxedo Junction which once featured headliners Joan Jet and Kansas had one act left as a community theater if nightlife ever came back to the Main Street corridor.
Today, the greatest promise for the storied 7,000-square-foot club that Danbury bought in 2017 is in its demolition, according the Savings Bank of Danbury, which plans to build a nearby office building on Main Street.
City leaders are inclined to agree. The reasons: No buyers are interested in spending up to $1 million to upgrade the cavernous club on Post Office Street, and the Savings Bank of Danbury’s plans to a construct a “landmark” office building at Main and White streets depends on an empty Tuxedo Junction lot to access an upgraded power source.
“I can’t build Main Street without this piece; I can’t do one without the other,” said Martin Morgado, president and CEO of the Savings Bank of Danbury, during a meeting of elected leaders and city department heads in late November. “I need to move the easement because we need to put a transformer there.”
The matter will be one of the first actions taken up by the newly elected City Council on Dec. 7, which will vote on a recommendation to declare the Tuxedo Junction property surplus, and sell it to the Savings Bank of Danbury, subject to an appraisal and negotiations.
“When we talk about a vibrant downtown… these are the kind of the decisions
that need to be made,” said Vinny DiGilio, president of the 21-member City Council, which will have a two-thirds GOP majority when new members are seated next week. “When it comes to entertainment venues and arts venues and those types of things downtown, there were numerous ones — it wasn’t just Tuxedo Junction that made that area vibrant — and there is plenty of vacant space that was never repurposed to do those type of things.”
Ben Chianese, a Democrat, was the lone City Council member to disagree at a meeting on Nov. 22.
“For those who remember the old Tuxedo Junction days when we had 200 people in that facility at one time, it was one of the cornerstones of that Ives Street entertainment district — do we really want to knock it down without at least trying to see what we can do?” Chianese said. “I know COVID happened and we really didn’t do a lot with it, but I think there are theater companies that would be interested in looking at that property again. I think we are giving up too soon.”
Danbury paid $395,000 in 2017 for a building that’s appraised at $600,000 in city records. The biggest cheerleader for the building at the time of the city’s purchase was former Mayor Mark Boughton, who left office last December to become the state tax commissioner. At the late November meeting, Boughton made a guest appearance, “providing free consulting services to the bank,” to advocate for Tuxedo Junction’s demolition.
“We didn’t have any bites at all,” Boughton said. “Nobody wants to make the investment.”
Boughton noted that before it was an entertainment venue the building was a body shop. He added that the building had an unconventional fire suppression system and other mechanical problems that made it a bad fit for creative reuse.
Outgoing Mayor Joe Cavo, who will join the Republican supermajority on the City Council, said Tuxedo Junction’s true value was as a property the bank needs for its four-story office building to be feasible.
“We’re really excited and energized that the city bank wants to bring in an office building to the corner of White and Main Street, Cavo said. “I hope the City Council will agree to sell (Tuxedo Junction), because I believe the redevelopment will spur other redevelopments in that same block.”