Restaurant and Apartments Envisioned at Vacant Butch’s Lot

This vacant lot at 112 S. 3rd Ave. in Sturgeon Bay, where a fire destroyed Butch’s Bar in February, is now for sale. Butch’s owner, Clarence Cumber Jr. – who is in the process of reopening the bar in the former Nautical Inn at 234 Kentucky St. – applied for a liquor license for the vacant lot with a proposal about how it could be developed. Photo by Kevin Boneske.

Though the new Butch’s Bar is moving into the former Nautical Inn – where Butch’s owner Clarence Cumber Jr. closed last month on purchasing the building at 234 Kentucky St. – plans are in the works to develop the vacant lot where fire destroyed the original establishment in February.

Sturgeon Bay’s Community Protection and Services Committee received a request from Cumber for consideration during its July 6 meeting for him to hold a Combination Class B liquor license for potential development of the lot at 112 S. 3rd Ave.

Cumber said he’s working with real estate broker Tom Alberts of Great Lakes Business Group to develop the site.

Alberts said he’s in the process of putting something together, along with contacting people as to whether they’d be interested in the site, but no development plans have been finalized.

Alberts said Cumber wrote down some thoughts that were submitted to the committee about how the vacant lot could be developed.

Cumber, who lost the liquor license to the site because it’s now a vacant lot, submitted his license application on behalf of an entity he put together called 112 S. 3rd Avenue, LLC.

Cumber’s list of how the lot could be developed includes a building with a full-service restaurant similar to the Nightingale on the first floor – where a liquor license would be needed – plus 10 two-bedroom apartments on the second floor and another 10 apartments on the third floor.

Cumber’s application also states that discussions have begun to get a credit union to locate next to the restaurant. The development he proposed would put parking at the back of the property.