The bright, neon Club Super Sexe sign has been a staple on Ste-Catherine Street for over fifty years. But since January when the club closed, it has stayed dark.
Now, the owner of the building says the sign will soon be no more.
“We’re not keeping the Super Sexe brand on the building. That’s not an option,” said Andre Jude of Ashkenazy Acquisitions Corp., the firm that owns the building.
Jude tells Global News his firm is closing in on a deal to bring a new tenant to the building. A retailer will likely take over the space by the end of 2017.
“No major retailers, in fact most tenants, would not want to be in a building and be associated with that brand. So I don’t think there’s any scenarios where we can forecast keeping the sign in any way shape or form,” Jude said.
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Dinu Bumbaru of Heritage Montreal says an argument can be made that the sign could be considered a heritage site.
“Montreal was a commercial city from the beginning, and Ste-Catherine was always a commercial street and characterized by signs like that,” Bumbaru told Global News.
But the city says the building is not a heritage site, and the owner agrees.
“Montreal has a lot of history. Some of it we want to conserve. I’m not sure we want to conserve all of it,” Jude said.
It would be possible to move the sign to another location like a museum, but it would be a complicated process. Jude said the sign was built into the side of the building, and would require some re-assembly wherever it was moved.
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“Anything is possible with an unlimited budget. I’m not sure that it could be reconstructed without spending a considerable amount of money,” said Jude.
He said he hasn’t received any offers for the sign yet.