Renovations have begun at Mory’s, the president of the club’s board of governors, Christopher Getman ’64, said Friday.
As money begins to trickle in from donors, construction projects are now underway. So far, Getman said, the Mory’s Board has presented its business plan to two donors, both of whom have pledged six-figure donations.
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“We’re two for two,” Getman said.
On Friday, movers put tables and chairs into trucks parked on York Street to clear the building so that the wallpapering can be redone, the walls can be painted and the electrical system can be upgraded, Getman said. The furniture from the historic eating club, founded in 1849, will be placed into storage, comptroller Robin Soltesz said.
All the pictures have been taken down from the walls as well, Getman said.
One donor is prepared to send a check but is waiting on final details to be arranged, Getman said, and the other donation is “a work in progress.”
Despite this recent progress, Getman said Mory’s still needs more donations to reopen by their projected fall 2009 start date.
“If we get money as we hope in a timely way and can pay our contractors there is a reasonable shot that we will open in September,” Getman said. “If the money is slow coming in we may have to slow things down. We just don’t know yet.”
Getman said there is always the possibility that the club will never reopen, but that possibility is “pretty remote.”
“If we can’t raise the money to do this then we won’t reopen,” he said. “But I’m optimistic about our ability to do it.”
Getman said the board has started to interview for the positions of manager and chef, but that the process is still in its early stages.
Steven Blumenfeld ’11, a member of Mory’s Business Operating Group, said the group is still meeting at least weekly to work out long-term plans for the organization’s structure.
“We are still looking into a number of different options [for a management structure], but we need to solidify what our long-term strategy is before we move to anything else,” Blumenfeld said.
He said the group is not yet ready to go public with its future plans.
Mory’s closed in December, facing declining revenues and a drop in its endowment. At that time the board dismissed all of its management and staff except Soltesz. In March, the board hired the architectural firm Gregg, Wies & Gardner Architects and the contracting firm New England Construction Management to revamp the eating club.