Turf Club 'completely gutted' but expected back in full after riot damage

Music fans let out a collective gasp in recent days over new photos that show just how badly the Turf Club was damaged during the May riots in St. Paul. However, the venue's operators see a lot of bright sides as they plan to rebuild one of the Twin Cities' favorite darkly lit concert venues.

A 1940s-era watering hole that's been a staple of the local music scene since the 1990s, the Turf Club was broken into just before midnight and set on fire during the rioting along University Avenue on May 28, three days after George Floyd's death in the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

Fortunately, the fire was contained to the ground-floor bar area and extinguished by the sprinkler system, which had been newly installed in 2013 after First Avenue bought the historic venue.

Unfortunately, because of all the other fires and calamity that night, nobody was able to enter the building until 8 a.m. the following morning to turn off the sprinklers. When they got there, both levels of the club were flooded with standing water, including the beloved basement space the Clown Lounge.

After two months of inspections and demolition — photos show the venue largely stripped to skeletal form — First Ave staff figures the Turf Club's repairs will be as extensive and costly as the roughly $1 million renovations that were done there over several months 2013-2014.

"We're kind of back to where we started," First Ave general manager Nate Kranz said.

After surveying the damage, Turf Club sound engineer Matt Johnson posted, "[It] really took the wind out of me to see the room I use to spend most of my days before the pandemic completely gutted."

More upsides, though: Insurance should cover most of the repair costs. First Ave's extensive policy on the old venue even included a "civil unrest" clause. Also, because those 2013 renovations were so recent, many of the same plans and materials can be reused in 2020.

The plan is to rebuild it to look like it did before the riots, right down to the same funky wood booths and tacky, old light fixtures in the Clown Lounge. Even the large upstairs bar hit by arson will be repaired to look the same.

"We're going to meddle with things a little, but I don't think there will be anything different that the casual observer will notice," he said.

Of course, those repairs are going to take time. And therein lies another mixed blessing amid this seemingly cursed year: Time is something music venues around the country have way too much of these days, courtesy of the coronavirus pandemic.

"If we were going to have a fire and flood and have to be out of commission for several months, this is certainly a good time for it," Kranz glibly noted.

With music lovers clamoring to show their support in the meantime, First Ave has put a bundle of new Turf Club merchandise on sale on its website, including T-shirts, hats and even a wall pennant and key chain.

Like most music venues, the Turf does not have any concert dates officially planned until early next year. It's one of around 30 Minnesota music venues and promotions companies behind the National Independent Venues Association (NIVA), for which First Ave owner Dayna Frank is serving as president. Sen. Amy Klobuchar recently co-authored the Save Our Stages bill with NIVA's input asking for federal assistance.

NIVA is billing Tuesday as its "day of action," asking supporters to contact their representatives to support the S.O.S. bill as well the Restart Act and the Encore Act, which could also help music venues.

Just as Frank urged supporters to instead focus their attention on George Floyd when the Turf Club was hit in May, Kranz also downplayed the venue's rebuilding needs amid other news of the day.

"It's sad what happened to it," he said, "but there are certainly worse things to worry about right now."

Chris Riemenschneider • 612-673-4658

@ChrisRstrib