Jazzy Joe's, the dark and gritty little music club and bar in the West End, could be heading up to midtown to larger quarters in the Empire building and into fierce resistance.
Or, it soon could be out in the street.
A deal has been struck, but apparently not signed, that would give Jazzy Joe's a 10-year lease to the empty Empire building next to CVS and across Main Street from the Gloucester Cooperative Bank expansion that's now under construction.
According to the lease document, Jazzy Joe's would pay Michael Butter, owner of the former Empire building, $4,500 a month — and provide Butter and his immediate family with free drinks.
Simultaneously, however, Jazzy Joe's also faces a court trial later this month as it fights eviction.
Dave Smith, attorney for the owner of the West End storefront occupied by the club, said Jazzy Joe's has missed paying rent for three months. To stop eviction by the landlord, Cuatro Amigos Nominee Trust, Jazzy Joe's has sought a jury trial in Peabody District Court, which is scheduled to start Feb. 26.
Sonia Anderson, president and treasurer of Jazzy Joe's, did not return phone calls seeking comment. Butter was out of the country and could not be reached.
The deal with Butter had been rumored for weeks, and a copy of the lease document was released yesterday by the city Licensing Board. The lease was written to have been signed last November. It was referenced in the agenda for tonight's Licensing Board meeting.
According to the lease document, Jazzy Joe's, which has operated in about 2,100 square feet at 84 Main St. since 2005, would take 7,200 square feet of the Empire building, a longtime fixture downtown until the store's demise in 2004.
Empire was part of a small North Shore chain and was known for its stylish women's and men's clothing.
Joe Ciolino — proprietor of the Weathervane Shop, a few doors to the west of the vacant Empire storefront — said, "Oh, my God, as a businessman, we do not need" Jazzy Joe's in midtown. He said he and other business owners had begun organizing to "fight it."
Licensing Board member Edward Pasquina said the board would need to hold a full hearing on the move before approving the change in location of Jazzy Joe's liquor license.
"You're changing the complexion of midtown," Pasquina said. "It's incumbent to have a hearing to see if this locale is suitable within the downtown development plan."
Over its short tenure in the West End, Jazzy Joe's has provided a venue for jazz, blues, folk and rock musicians, and lent its space to charitable efforts, most recently on behalf of the residents made homeless by December's Lorraine Apartments building fire.
It has also been a hot spot for fights, as noted in police logs. Last year alone, six separate incidents based at Jazzy Joe's made police notes.
"It has had problems in its present location," Ciolino said. He noted that the club is licensed for 75 people at the smaller location in the West End, where restaurants are concentrated in what has become the nightlife end of Main Street.
The larger space in Empire, said Ciolino, would almost certainly allow for more patrons and that, he said, would lead to more problems.
He said he didn't like the idea of Jazzy Joe customers standing outside, "smoking and hanging out" next to CVS, whose business plan emphasizes prescription services.
Ciolino noted the aborted effort of the Moose Lodge three yeas ago to move into a storefront in the West End.
"It's just like the Moose," Ciolino said. The Empire site "is not the appropriate place for them."
The Moose members lost their West End gambit, but recently closed on the purchase of the Green Tavern in the East End.
The Empire lease document prohibits misbehavior. Paragraph six requires Anderson to acknowledge that no activity at the new home of Jazzy Joe's will be "unlawful, improper, noisy (and) offensive."
The first-year lease would be $4,500 a month, increasing annually to $5,648 a month in the last year of the lease, which would begin Dec. 1, 2016. An additional rental fee would be required based on a 45 percent share of real estate taxes, insurance, utilities and "other operating expenses incurred by the club in connection with the operation of the building.
Jazzy Joe's would also lease the right to 45 percent of the parking behind the building off Rogers Street, where there is a small, elevated parking lot.
The lease gives Jazzy Joe's first refusal rights to match any offer for the building.
Also, the last clause of the lease — under the heading of "Miscellaneous" — states that "the Lessee agrees to serve the Lessor and Lessor's immediate family with beverages at no cost to Lessor."
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