LOGAN SQUARE -- The owner behind a women's sports bar and event space coming to Logan Square next year is raising funds to help build out the business's new home.
Nora McConnell-Johnson, a lifelong athlete and sports fan, plans to open Babe's at 3017 W. Armitage Ave. after getting overall positive feedback from neighbors and the alderperson on the idea. Now that the storefront is officially hers, she aims to raise $75,000 to transform the former Music Lounge space, which has sat vacant since 2017 or early 2018.
The fundraiser launched last week and has received almost $30,000 as of Wednesday afternoon. There are several fundraising perks meant to entice donors to give on a tiered scale, including free drinks, your name on a barstool, a free party and more.
"Seventy-five thousand dollars is what we need to spend, at least, on a good renovation. It's aesthetic, cosmetic and infrastructure," McConnell-Johnson said.
The fundraiser will be open through the month.
If the fundraiser is successful and if city licenses are given, bar renovations are likely to begin after November. Construction is set to last a few months with the goal of opening up Babe's by February and be fully functional by March Madness, McConnell-Johnson said.
The space was a longtime dive bar and has black walls, curtains, a low ceiling and other things that need to be revamped and brightened, McConnell-Johnson said. She plans to lower and shorten the bar top and make it a U-shaped design to offer a more communal space.
McConnell-Johnson's design team plans to use reclaimed wood and old gym floors for the bar top and add sports mementos like mini keychains, sports erasers, old photos, pins and more into the bar with epoxy resin -- so "you can see women are memorialized in the bar," the owner said.
The ceiling will be redone and the walls will get a makeover, as well as the patio and bathrooms, and there will be other cosmetic designs. McConnell-Johnson hired Siren Betty, a local company that's designed bars and restaurants in the area, including the revamped SmallBar, LOULOU, Common Decency and the California Clipper.
The fundraiser will also support Babe's partnership with Clean Air Club, an organization working toward more accessible and cleaner air for artists and venues by donating air purifiers and filter replacements. McConnell-Johnson will add a HEPA air filtration to the space to protect the health and safety of everyone who walks through the doors, she said.
Best Intentions bar at 3281 W. Armitage Ave., which was recently renovated, is the only Clean Air Club-approved venue in the city so far, with nine high-powered disinfecting lamps, according to the organization's website.
The renovation work is an important step to make the space inclusive, more conducive to watching games and more physically comfortable for women, McConnell-Johnson said.
The full renovation could cost closer to $110,000-$115,000, but McConnell-Johnson hopes the community will back her to make her initial goal and help make the bar their space, too.
"Babe's won't feel like a men's bar; it's a reimagined sports bar, but it does take work," McConnell-Johnson said.
A liquor moratorium was added to the strip after Music Lounge closed, but Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th) plans to lift it per McConnell-Johnson's request and after receiving positive feedback, McConnell-Johnson said.
McConnell-Johnson also needs to obtain a special-use permit for tavern operations from the Zoning Board of Appeals, with the item to be heard at the board's November meeting. Once that's approved, the liquor moratorium ordinance lift will be introduced by Fuentes and go through the City Council, according to the 26th Ward office.
The next step will be applying and receiving a conditional liquor license, then a proper license and then a patio and public place of amusement license. All of these steps have required city and attorney fees, another reason why McConnell-Johnson decided to launch the fundraiser, she said.
"No donation is too small -- if you give $25, you will get two drink tickets for when we open," she said.