BLVD Pub building up for sale; no word on future of Tru Blu

WEST FARGO - BLVD Pub, a pre-pandemic favorite of area residents, apparently will not be reopening.

A “For Sale” sign recently went up on the property at 3147 Bluestem Drive, which has sat unused since the owners announced March 19 on Facebook that it would be closed “until further notice.”

The asking price for the 5,733 square foot pub is $2.6 million, or about $454 per square foot, according to a Loopnet listing by commercial real estate firm CBRE.

BLVD opened in late spring 2016. It sits on about 1 acre of land along the busy Veterans Boulevard corridor, relatively near Sanford Hospital and Scheels Arena.

For 2019, city assessors valued the land at $579,100 and the building at $1,557,900.

The Forum has tried to contact the registered agents of BLVD Pub Inc. and BLVD Holdings LLC, without success. However, a Facebook reply to a patron asking about the pub’s status 15 weeks ago indicated that at that point, BLVD’s ownership was still contemplating whether to reopen.

Other restaurants in the area have also remained closed since the pandemic’s initial phases, when drinking and dining on-site was prohibited or restricted in Minnesota and North Dakota.

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Tru Blu at 915 19th Ave. E. has been closed since mid-March due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Tru Blu is part of the Florida-based restaurant holding company ARC Group, which owns a number of other quick-service restaurant chains, including Dick’s Wings & Grill, Fat Patty’s, Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery and WingHouse Bar and Grill.

A notice posted on Facebook and on Tru Blu’s doors said, “We look forward to the day that we can reopen Tru Blu and gain your business back.”

An email to ARC Group has not been returned and several calls to the firm at it’s Orange Park, Fla., headquarters have not been picked up.

Tru Blu first opened as the Tru Blu Social Club in mid-August 2017.

On the Moorhead side of the Red River, the Village Inn restaurant at 940 Holiday Drive, just northeast of the intersection of Eighth Street South and Interstate 94, also remains closed.

However, Abe Sakak, the president of Village Inn in Fargo-Moorhead, said Thursday, Sept. 3, that he hopes to reopen the restaurant sometime in the next few months.

“The plan for that location has always been to reopen when Minnesota settles down and all of this stuff starts ironing out. We are open in Fargo right now and we are seeing that our business is slowly coming back,” Sakak said.

Sakak said Village Inn has been part of the F-M area for half a century.

“In Moorhead it’s been difficult for us to have it staffed and all of that, so we’re working on that,” Sakak said.

“We’re hoping that within the next couple, few months, we have it all nicely cleaned up and opened up,” he said. “We’re hoping … we come back strong.”

1/2: Tru Blu, 915 19th Ave. E., West Fargo, closed in mid-March due to COVID-19 outbreak restrictions and was still not operating as of Thursday, Sept. 3. (Helmut Schmidt / The Forum)

2/2: Village Inn, 940 Holiday Drive, Moorhead, remained closed as of Thursday, Sept. 3. Company President Abe Sakak said he hopes the restaurant can be reopened in the next few months. (Helmut Schmidt / The Forum)