It’s been known for the better part of a decade that Olde Towne East music venue Carabar would eventually be relocating or closing. The ongoing Interstate 70/71 reconstruction project calls for the eventual demolition of the building that Carabar is currently housed in at 115 Parsons Avenue, along with the former E.T. Paul tire shop building next door. While construction on that phase of the project was originally scheduled to begin sometime in 2017, Carabar is prepping to make the move down the street sooner to avoid the wrecking ball.
The property owner of 64 Parsons Avenue has applied for a variance to change the use of an office space into a bar and reduce required parking from 26 spaces to zero spaces so that Carabar can move up the street. The Near East Area Commission (NEAC) Zoning Committee held a site meeting this past Saturday to review the application and allow neighbors to voice their concerns.
“The only issue that the residents had was parking,” said NEAC Zoning Chair Annie Ross-Womack. “But it’s the same issue Carabar has now — a lack of parking. Our thinking is that when the city develops their streets during the highway project, for them to do some type of shared parking along the future feeder street.”
A precedent has already been set with the first phase of the highway construction project, which included on-street parking both on the Long Street Bridge, and along the new stretch of Elijah Piece Boulevard between Spring Street and Long Street.
Ross-Womack said that otherwise, residents don’t want to lose Carabar, so the relocation to the new address is not an issue. She said that representatives at the meeting indicated that a name change for the business was likely to occur with the move.
While the next phase of highway construction was originally planned for 2017, ODOT Project Manager Leslie Montgomery confirmed this morning that it has officially been delayed for at least another year due to a lack of funding.