Toronto music fans were alarmed this week to discover a gaping hole at 484 Spadina Ave. where the Silver Dollar Room used to be, but fret not: it will be back, in recognizable form and as a live-music venue.

The heritage designation applied to the property last year when it looked like the city might lose one of its most beloved clubs still stands. New owners Fitrovia Real Estate, which acquired the property and the adjacent Waverly Hotel from original developers the Wynn Group earlier this year, were only able to tear down the Dollar on the understanding that they must satisfy some very strict heritage criteria upon reconstruction.

Yes, the Silver Dollar will now be part of a 15-storey residential complex, but by law it’s at least going to have to look an awful lot like the Silver Dollar as we remember it before it went dark on May 1 of last year after one final blast of thunder from local punks METZ. Although, truth be told, no one would likely complain too much if the washrooms get a little spiffed up during the rebuild.

In any case, Trinity-Spadina Councillor Joe Cressy, who worked tirelessly to preserve the Dollar when it looked like Toronto might lose a living piece of its musical history last year, says there’s no cause for concern. The Silver Dollar will return, and how it returns must be approved by the city.

“It has to be called the Silver Dollar. The original sign has to be used. The original bar and the original floor have to be in the same positions, and the original photos back on the wall. And it has to be a commercial venue,” Cressy tells the Star, adding that the new owners have met with him Toronto’s music-sector development officer, Mike Tanner, to confirm “that the built form is coming back and that it will be coming back as a live-music venue, not simply as a commercial venue that occasionally has music.”

Acoustic layering is being incorporated into the new design “like they do in Austin,” too, says Cressy, so the new tenants living in the 167 rental units above the Dollar won’t have any noise to complain about. (Perhaps METZ will one day have the chance to test such noise-proofing measures.)

Beyond that, however, representatives of Fitzrovia have declined for the moment to reveal any further details about the resurrected Silver Dollar Room.

“We are currently refining the technical aspects of the new Silver Dollar,” the company’s associate vice-president of development, David Benchimol, said in an email. “We are meeting with industry experts and working with our engineers to properly restore the space. We are grateful for the opportunity to speak with the Star but we still have more work to do on our end. Hopefully in a few weeks from now, we will have a much better idea of the final Silver Dollar offering to share with you.”

Among those “industry experts” who have been contacted by Fitzrovia is promoter Dan Burke, who oversaw the music programming at the Silver Dollar over the last few years of its life and turned it into one Toronto’s most vibrant underground hotspots. But that’s as far as it’s gotten at present: contact.

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As Burke pointed out to this writer earlier this week, “the key question is: what will the new rental lease cost for the space?” The Dollar’s previous owners, David and Elsa Yarmus, had first right of refusal to reoccupy the room under an agreement with the Wynn Group, but that appears to have gone out the window when the property was sold to Fitzrovia so it remains unclear who will operate the new live venue.

“Of course, there is the preference that the same ownership group would take it over and we’d have Dan Burke back,” says Cressy. “That’s certainly what I would love to see. But those are the conversations that are happening…

“Once music starts playing, I’ll say it’s good news. But until then, I’m going to continue diligently on it. The last thing in the world we want to have happen is that it ends up being some live-music joint that serves rapini salads during the day and evening. The spirit of the Silver Dollar has to live on along with the Silver Dollar, so that’s what we’re hoping to see happen.”