Small towns aren’t the typical environment one would expect to see a nightclub in, but a businessman from Sherwood Park has set up shop in Boyle and he’s hoping to be up and running by August.
Ivan Emde certainly fits the persona of a nightclub owner. The gregarious contractor is in the process of turning the former Seventh Day Adventist church into an evening entertainment hub with live music, cheap food, and a good vibe each night.
“I think there’s nothing but potential to make this place really go,” said Emde in a June 18 interview.
Emde’s inspiration for a club came from his teenage years when he was growing up in Sherwood Park. At the time, the community of roughly 8,000 people had a standout spot to go to every evening, David’s, and Emde returned to their model when he was drawing up the plans for the yet-unnamed Boyle venture.
“They did well, and they really gave people an option of what they wanted to do at night,” said Emde.
If all goes according to plan, Emde is envisioning a spot where people can go grab a steak sandwich for lunch, play a crib tournament on the weekends, or listen to some live music Thursday through Saturday. He stressed that he wasn’t looking to compete with any of the existing businesses — “I’m not doing pizza, I don’t want to mess with my boys up the road there,” said a laughing Emde — and the club will be mindful of how late it goes.
“We’ll shut down a little earlier in the wintertime, but in the summer it’ll be a little bit later. We’re just going to have fun with it and make people smile. We really got a heck of a good reception all through town,” he said.
During a June 4 public hearing, Emde and a colleague spoke to councillors briefly — the property had to be rezoned from institutional to commercial for the project to go ahead — and no one showed up to oppose the change in classification.
“The one thing my mum taught me, the foremost of everything, is that you don’t deserve respect you earn it, and that’s what I plan to do with everybody in this community,” he said.
“I love it so far and I can’t see any problems. People are coming up and coming into the ex-church and saying, ‘Thank God it’s not getting ripped down and it actually turning into something.’”
He also addressed any possible concerns about intoxicated drivers; Emde plans to offer what is effectively a taxi service for customers who either don’t live in Boyle, or who had a little too much to drink.
“If somebody comes and they’re driving and they have more than two beers an hour, we’re offering them a ride home for free. This is very important, we want the community to be safe,” said Emde.
“I love your community and I hope we can do really great things.”
