The City of Brantford has arranged to purchase the largest property in downtown Brantford.
The purchase includes Market Square, the downtown mall which currently houses Williams, and a large number of city services. The purchase also includes the building which houses the popular student nightclub, Club NV.

Club NV, which stands for “New Vision,” is currently one of very few nightclubs in the city, and the only one situated remotely close to campus.

Due to news reports last week that stated that the city may have intentions of shutting NV down once its lease expired, students worried about the future of the club now that the city has ownership of the building which the club has been leasing since it opened.

Despite comments quoted in local news last week that he did not see NV in the future scope of the downtown, Ward 1 Councillor, Larry Kings, explained that, “There’s no intent to start evicting tenants.” Instead, he said that the primary concern of city officials is the Beckett building across the street from NV, a senior’s home.

Kings states, “We are interested in working with [NV] to allay a lot of the problems that they’ve had as far as the Beckett building goes.”

Club staff is also optimistic about a new relationship with the city and are aware of noise concerns. Club Manager, Erin Piovesan, says, “[NV] has been in contact with the Beckett building to start doing some activities for them throughout the day, so they’re also using the venue.”

While the club works to address existing noise concerns before the city takes over, they are also working on expansion.

In addition to new daytime events and programming, such as the aforementioned activities for the retirement home across the street, Club NV is also putting in new features for students and general patrons.

Highlights of this process include a new lounge, a kitchen and more washrooms. Once all of these renovations are complete, the club hopes to offer daytime lounge space and meals to accommodate students.

The renovations will also allow the club to increase the guest capacity on their liquor license. Currently the club can only allow 440 patrons inside when alcohol is being served.

After renovations, the cap will increase to somewhere between 750 and 1000 people. This should cut down on some of the lines students see during the more popular bar nights, and Laurier events hosted at NV.