“Vault” Nightclub OK’d For Ex-Bank Downtown

A vacant former bank will see new life, at least at night, as a club and special events space.

That’s after a potential commercial tenant of 45 Church St., the long-empty Classical Revival former bank building at Church and Crown Street, got approval from the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) to operate a nightclub, cafe and bar in just under 5,000 square feet of the building’s first floor. 

The board unanimously granted a special exception allowing that use in a street-level building during their latest meeting online Wednesday night. That approval comes less than two months after the City Plan Commission rejected a previous plan to turn that long-vacant downtown bank into a cannabis dispensary.

Wednesday’s vote means that zoning-relief applicant Alexandra Arpi, operating under the company Vault NH LLC, has the go ahead to serve drinks, dinners and dancing until 1 a.m. Thursdays and 2 a.m on Fridays and Saturdays starting this fall. 

Arpi, who has long worked in the bar and restaurant industry around Connecticut, said the upcoming venue will be called ​“The Vault,” and focus on offering a ​“classy establishment” to serve students from nearby colleges and universities. 

“They’re gonna have everything from security to help monitor the operations and policing for the patrons to make sure there’s not underage drinking or nefarious operations going on,” John Pollard, the real estate broker who represented the applicants at Wednesday’s BZA meeting, stated.

He said that any food served on the property will come from an ​“outside commissary” to accommodate pre-booked special events, such as graduation or birthday parties.

“I may have been in a club once or twice and noticed the kinds of uses in a club are not always conducive to keeping things nice — and this building seems to have some historic value,” BZA Commissioner Errol Saunders noted during the meeting.

“If anyone’s had a chance to be in the building, it’s got that big, vaulted ceiling, it’s a beautiful space,” Pollard said. The outside of the building will remain unchanged, he said, and the applicants are looking to rent out just 4,992 square feet of the two-story space’s first floor. 

In the meantime, the building’s interior is plagued by spalling plaster for which repairs are underway. The tenants will likely seek to expand their operation within the space down the line, Pollard said, in which case they will have to submit to site plan review by the City Plan Commission.

The applicants did not respond to requests for comment by the Independent asking for more detail about their intentions for the site. 

“We’ve owned the space for about seven years, I don’t know how long it was empty before,” said David Kuperberg, the landlord of the property. ​“It would be really, really nice to have an occupant… nobody wants a barren, empty city,” he told the Independent by phone following the meeting.

The City Plan Commission previously rejected a proposal to turn the building into a hybrid recreational and medical marijuana dispensary this summer. Read more about that here.

“I was disappointed that they turned it down,” Kuperberg said. ​“But I’m encouraged that we have someone else to rent the space,” he added, saying that he’s ready to sign a formal lease with the applicants now that they’ve received zoning relief. ​“It’s a good thing for the city, it’s a good thing for the immediate neighborhood, it’s a good thing for the economy… I think everyone wants the space occupied.”