Popular sports bar in Knightville to be torn down for redevelopment
The new owner of the former Griffin Club building, a popular sports bar in the Knightville neighborhood in South Portland, plans to tear down the 5,800-square-foot building constructed in 1900 and rebuild on its footprint.
The Forecaster reported that owner Ginger Cote expects to present a redevelopment plan to the planning board in January for a four-story building that would have five condominiums on the upper floors and a new restaurant and tavern to be called Big Babe’s on the first floor. The restaurant would feature live music, local-beef burgers and comfort food, she told the Forecaster.
Cote hopes to start the redevelopment project in February.
Parking will be a key issue. That could be accounted for by amending city regulations, which would benefit the entire city, City Planning Director Tex Haeuser told the newspaper.
Knightville has experienced a renaissance in the last decade, and residents have complained about parked vehicles on residential side streets.
The Griffin Club was a popular, Irish-themed sports bar established in 1968. It hosted Boston sports greats like Ted Williams, Dave Cowens, Jim Rice and Luis Tiant. Founder Eddie Griffin, who passed away in 1993, was known as a sports promoter and local legend who was kind-hearted and charitable to local causes, according to a 2016 Bangor Daily News history of the bar.
Cote said the building was too dilapidated to save.
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