Members and employees of the Erie Maennerchor Club confirm that it is closing, at least for the summer, effective tonight.
Members told Erie News Now they received the word in an email today.
The Erie Maennerchor Club, located at 1607 State Street has been wrestling with low membership and the resulting financial issues for the past several years. The board of trustees tried lower rates for new and young members, and a creating a football watching room to try and increase membership.
In March, the club building was listed for sale, with leadership conceding that they may need to find a smaller venue in order to survive.
Matt Sanfilippo, President of the Board of Trustees, told us that the board met on Thursday and in a unanimous vote, decided to close for now, and re-open only if a buyer is found for the over 33-thousand square foot building. "We have a couple of prospective buyers, but until the building sells, we decided it was best to suspend operations for the summer months."
Sanfilippo went on to say that trustees hope if the building sells, the club can lease back space to continue operations. "We would need about 12-thousand square feet and hope we could re-open come August or September. The club has about 1,400 members in all categories -- life members, regular, junior, military and auxiliary.
The Maennerchor Club was founded 147-years-ago as a German singing society. The massive building with a reception hall, duckpin bowling lanes, multiple meeting rooms and bars is listed at $950,000, but Sanfilippo said the price is negotiable.
The closing means that 30 employees, mostly in the food, bar and banquet service will be laid off and able to collect unemployment benefits.
Some groups who had parties or events scheduled for the club moved to different venues when the building went up for sale. Sanfilippo said the club will make arrangements to honor a few of those events remaining on the schedule.