Reggie’s to Close for Three Months

Campus Bar Renovations Begin October 18

NewsAndrew Brennan — Published September 17, 2013

The Link has learned Reggie’s bar, Concordia’s student-run bar in the Hall Building mezzanine, will be closed as of Oct. 18 for renovations until at least the start of the winter semester.

According to Concordia Student Union VP Finance Scott Carr, who also serves as president of CUSACorp—the for-profit arm of the student union which owns Reggie’s and the adjacent student space leased to JavaU—the renovations have been a long time coming.

“I did all my research, came up with a full plan to implement a kitchen, [point of sale system] and all this stuff […] my assumption was, we might as well get new equipment, get a really nice kitchen, and be good for years,” he said.

But things didn’t quite go according to plan.

“We realized we don’t have the knowledge necessary,” said Carr. “I may be great with numbers, I’m great with figuring out taxes, planning things […] but at the end of the day we’ve never operated a full-scale kitchen, and we needed help.”

Carr says he and other CUSACorp board members sought out members of the restaurant service industry to re-evaluate their upgrades to Reggie’s. In that time, Carr says it became clear that “to do it right,” the bar would have to remain closed for renovations longer than the initially planned four-week period.

According to a Reggie’s employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity, bar staff were told about the upcoming closure at the first staff meeting for the new academic year in late August.

According to the employee, it was only in September, after school had already started, that staff learned the renovations would take longer than four weeks.

“It definitely affects [employees], some of them quit their jobs to come back and work at Reggie’s,” they said.

“They rely on this money to pay for their school and stuff, and we weren’t informed until our first staff meeting [of the closure]. After that—like two weeks into the school year—then they told us, ‘yeah it’s going to be more like five months, or four months instead of four weeks.’

“They couldn’t make alternative plans, they were just told all of a sudden, ‘hey, wait a minute, your jobs are gone.’”

According to Carr, the official time frame for renovations has Reggie’s reopening in January.