The owners of The Bear Club have teased a “promising development” which could see the Luton music venue saved after fears it would be forced to close in the summer.
In January, the building in Mill Yard, just off Guildford Street, in which the jazz and blues club resides, was put up for sale, sparking fears for the “worst case scenario”.
And last month Bear Club owners Giles Willits and Neil Simmonds announced they’d got “the result we feared” after community efforts failed to secure the club’s future from a prospective new owner of the building’s freehold, who was not keen to retain the popular music spot.
That left The Bear Club facing extinction in June, but now a potential new “Bear friendly” buyer for the building has emerged that could see the venue live on.
In a statement on the club’s website, Willits and Simmonds wrote: ‘Further to our previous discussions about the future of the club, we wanted to share with you what we hope will potentially be great news.
‘Sorry it’s gone a bit quiet since our last update but in recent weeks we have learned that a new purchaser has emerged who has had an offer accepted to buy the building from which the Bear Club operates.
‘The good news is that this purchaser has indicated that they are very much “Bear-friendly” and would want the club to remain in its current “natural habitat” over the long term.
‘We have had discussions with the purchaser over a number of weeks and, although the purchase is not yet completed, we are reassured that they have the best interests of The Bear Club at heart and that we can begin to plan for a future at the current premises beyond the end of June.
‘We would stress that the deal is not yet done so look out for further announcements as soon as we can share further news, including the identity of the purchaser, but we thought you’d like to hear it from us first.’
You can find out what’s on at The Bear Club at: https://www.the-bear.club/whats-on
