Proposed nightclub draws opposition in Willmar, Minn.

WILLMAR, MINN. – Barbara Moreno held her newborn baby close outside the building where her family’s business dreams would soon be decided.

That dream, held by Moreno and her fiancé, Carlos Valdovinos, is to operate their own nightclub in Willmar, a prospect that drew opposition from those worried about its effect on the neighborhood.

Moreno appeared nervous as she and her week-old baby entered a session of the Willmar Planning Commission on Wednesday night.

Moreno and Valdovinos sought a conditional use permit to operate a nightclub at 951 High Av. The property, with a 6,000-square-foot former gymnastics gym, is near Willmar Lake and next to a National Guard armory and 96-unit apartment complex owned by the housing company Suite Liv’n.

For seven years, Moreno and Valdovinos have operated the Diamante Night Club, about a mile away. At the meeting, Moreno said the new site would not be a new club, but a relocation from its current site. “We don’t want to rent anymore,” she said, adding she envisioned having DJs and a dance hall, with bands coming each month.

But some in Willmar have raised concerns about the nightclub since its proposal at a planning meeting in early September.

Nathan Kriese, who runs West Central Trophies, a business a block from the proposed site, said he worries that a nightclub will attract “yahoos bringing in crime,” who will then move into the low-income apartment complex next door. “I just think it’s like throwing a Molotov cocktail into a firewood factory to put a nightclub right next to it,” Kriese said in a phone call Tuesday.

Dean Zuleger, chief operating officer of Suite Liv’n, said he’s already had several tenants say they would leave if the permit is approved. “I’m worried about all sorts of activities that happen late at night when alcohol is involved,” Zuleger said in a phone call before the meeting Wednesday.

Many residents in the apartments next to the proposed nightclub are visiting workers such as travel nurses or farm laborers, he said. “It makes no sense to have a nightclub that has concerts next to a place where people need to rest to work in the community,” Zuleger said.

He has said that the company also partners with addiction centers and women’s shelters to house Willmar’s most vulnerable residents, and some of these tenants would be too close for comfort to the new nightclub.

Instead of a nightclub, the site should be used for a Somali community center where children from the nearby apartments can play, Zuleger said. Willmar, a city of about 21,000 people, is about 24% Hispanic and 11% Black, with 16% of the city born overseas, double the average rate in the rest of Minnesota. About 43% of the company’s tenants are Somali, and Zuleger called them his “best-paying renters.”

But Doug Fenstra, the real estate agent helping sell the property at 951 High Av., said he had never heard about the possibility of a Somali community center before Zuleger brought up the idea at an October planning commission meeting.

On Wednesday, the planning commission deliberated whether a nightclub would fit the character of the neighborhood. They noted that there was already a brewery in the area.

They passed a motion granting the conditional-use permit.

Zuleger said he would appeal. “This decision defies good land-use policy, public safety, and is very disrespectful of low-income residents,” he said.

Meanwhile, a beaming Moreno, holding baby Carlos, named after his father, said she hoped opponents of the nightclub would change their minds.

“I just hope that they come visit and give us a chance,” she said.