After fighting for two years over the future of Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, Rich Lupo and property owner Arnold "Buff" Chace are collaborating in search of a new location for the venerable rock club outside of downtown Providence. "I prefer not to leave the inner city, but I also think the survivability is greater politically outside the inner city," says Lupo, adding that a suitable location has yet to be found. "If there's enough parking, I think it could be great."

In two incarnations dating to 1975, Lupo's has been one of downtown's top attractions and the club provided a source of vitality long before Providence emerged on the national radar screen. In recent years, though, some observers have cited the Heartbreak Hotel -- which is housed in the Peerless Building, the largest of a cluster of Westminster Street properties being targeted for redevelopment -- as an impediment to the growth of downtown residential activity.

Relations between Lupo and Chace, a principal in Peerless-Keen Associates, which bought the Peerless Building in the mid-'90s, soured in 1999 after a plan to relocate Lupo's to the then-idled Strand on Washington Street came up short. Accusing Lupo of violating the terms of his lease, Chace took Lupo to court, but a district court judge decided in the club owner's favor. An appeal of that decision is scheduled for consideration in Superior Court on February 5.

Lupo, who has about seven years left on his lease, previously indicated that he was entrenching himself for a long stay on Westminster Street. Now, though, he's amenable to the possibility of relocating the club out of Downcity, he says, because of a sense that the local establishment is arrayed against him. "I know that the influence of [major property owners] Buff Chace and Joe Paolino and Stan Weiss is 1000 times greater than the influence of rock and roll entrepreneurs," Lupo says. "All you have to do is read some of these editorials in the Journal."

Some observers contend that Lupo's, by virtue of hosting such drawing cards as Lucinda Williams and Smashing Pumpkins, could be successful in any number of locations, but that when it comes to the residential potential of downtown Providence, there's only one Peerless Building and that the large structure is a linchpin for further growth.

Chace was out of town earlier this week and couldn't be reached for comment. Lupo says he's prepared to partner with Chace on the real estate aspect of a new club, although an appropriate site has yet to be identified after locations were examined on Allens Avenue and near the central post office on Corliss Street. "Buff's people and myself are struggling to find something," Lupo says. "I do want to say that I appreciate Buff's open-mindedness in this. I think deep down he wants to be a strong supporter of the arts."

Although Lupo's departure would create a void in the middle of the city, Bert Crenca, artistic director of AS220, believes a sufficient level of other activities are unfolding -- such as the Providence Black Repertory Company's pending move to Westminster Street -- that the effect wouldn't be too jarring. "The city is broadening, it's moving out," says Crenca. "It's stretching beyond the downtown. I don't think there's any loss of momentum in the process."

Lupo says the thaw in relations with Chace came after the developer -- whose residential Alice Building on Westminster Street is due to soon be completed -- recently called him to discuss a possible solution.

Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis[a]phx.com.

Issue Date: January 4 - 10, 2002