University extends deadline for Cannon Club alumni to repurchase clubhouse

For the second time in three years, University officials have extended the deadline for Cannon Club alumni to repurchase their former clubhouse, Vice President and Secretary Thomas Wright '62 said yesterday.

According to Wright, Cannon alumni will now have until April 15, 2001 to buy the building located on Prospect Avenue.

The deadline for the purchase originally was set for May 1999, but University officials later agreed to push that deadline back one year. At the request of Cannon alumni, the deadline was then pushed back again until April 15, 2001, Wright said.

"The two parties entered into agreements, and we extended the deadline, twice," Wright said. "[The Cannon alumni] wanted to extend it to engage in additional fund raising and [the University] wanted to extend it because we found we need the building for swing space."

The second extension of the repurchase deadline most likely will allow Cannon Club to buy the building in February 2001 and accept members in February 2002, Cannon Club President Warren Crane '62 said in an interview yesterday.

"We expect we will be able to move into the building in February. We will then be faced with the task of renovating the building," Crane said. "I would say that [the odds of opening the club to members in February 2002] are better than 50-50."

The building will require extensive renovations to restore the facilities needed for an eating club, Crane said. Cannon alumni are planning to maintain the club's legendary two taprooms in the basement, he said, adding that a third taproom also may be constructed.

"When I was a student, there was the green taproom and the red taproom," Crane said. "Since the University took over the building, they have done renovations on the basement where the taprooms are. There is actually a room in-between the two taprooms now. It will effectively become a third taproom; whether or not we have three bars or one large bar [has not yet been determined]."

The club has been raising funds for the past several years to secure the money necessary for the building's costs, renovations and an initial endowment. "The fund-raising target is set at five million dollars," Crane said, adding that the goal had not yet been reached.

Even if Cannon were to raise the necessary funds to repurchase the facility, the Cannon alumni's timetable may need to change, Wright said. "It's conceivable that we will try to delay the exchange depending on the construction schedule of Robertson [Hall]," he said.

The finances of the deal are not certain because of varying values of the pieces of real estate involved and the complexity of the deal, Wright said. The agreement has been under constant review to ensure fairness to all parties involved. Though the actual amount of money Cannon alumni will be required to pay is uncertain, "one million dollars is the order of magnitude," Wright said.

Cannon alumni expect the club to be a successful addition to the 'Street' and are not concerned with a lack of interest in a twelfth eating club, according to Crane. "I have been contacted by several sophomores already," he said. "We have a reasonably strong confidence in [student interest in Cannon Club]."