Maxwell’s reopening pushed to mid-December

After moving to a new location and undergoing renovations, Maxwell’s Concerts and Events, formerly Maxwell’s Music House, is getting close to reopening.

Formerly located at 220 King Street North, Maxwell’s will now be run out of 35 University Avenue East, the old Dooly’s Bar and Billiards location. Plans for the move were set in motion in 2013 and the old location closed at the beginning of this past summer.

“We’ve had to conduct quite an extensive set of renovations on the building,” said Maxwell’s owner and namesake, Paul Maxwell. “We’ve pretty much gutted the building top to bottom, so you can imagine with a building that’s over 9,000 square feet it’s quite a process to put it all back together.”

They originally anticipated that the new Maxwell’s would be open in time for the return of students in the fall. Now, however, they are aiming to open in mid-December. Maxwell said that it was no surprise that the renovations have been taking so long.

“The amount of time to do the renovations wasn’t really a shock, we knew it would take at least three months,” he said. “Considering we’ve had to do all new plumbing for 29 urinals and stalls in the building, installed a new rooftop and heating and cooling — all things that are very large projects, not just slapping up drywall and that type of thing.”

The venue is also going through standard finishing touches that any concert house normally must, like obtaining a liquor license and ensuring the building is completely inspected and safe before reopening.

That being said, Maxwell remains positive and said that both his past experience and the City of Waterloo’s council has been very helpful during this process.

“It’s my second time around going through these motions and the process has been pretty smooth. The local Waterloo city hall and all of the officers and agents there have been pretty helpful, making sure we get things in motion,” said Maxwell. “The next part of the process is getting inspectors to come in and sign off on things. So that’s where we’re at now, just getting things signed off and doing the cosmetic touches on the building, like hanging décor, and getting the sound system in.”

The Waterloo community can look forward to Maxwell’s grand reopening on Dec. 12, which will be a 19+ event with the doors opening at 7 p.m. Maxwell has also hinted at “some pretty major shows coming in the new year,” promising to be working with local artists that the venue has featured in the past.