Dave Chappelle plans to convert Ohio fire station into comedy club

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio— Comedian Dave Chappelle is set to buy a former fire station with plans to turn it into a comedy club not far from his home.

The Miami Townshipowshi Fire Station in Yellow Springs, near Dayton, will be sold to the 47-year-old actor’s company and turned into a club that will seat 140 people, the Dayton Daily News reported.

A member of the development corporation board who headed up the subcommittee on selling the fire station said the group wanted someone who would breathe life into the station.

“We think this will bring a new class of jobs to town,” Corrie Van Ausdal said. “We also considered that (Chappelle) is a minority business owner, he has a history of employing minorities, and he is a person who has a clear commitment to amplifying voices of color.”

The closing date for the sale is set for early 2021, said Lisa Abel, president of the Yellow Springs Development Corp. who is carrying out the sale.

Chappelle’s ties to Ohio go back to his father, who graduated from Antioch College, in Yellow Springs, and later was a professor there. Chappelle lives with his family outside the village and also owns homes in nearby Xenia.

In June, Chappelle held a private, outdoor stand-up and social commentary performance before a socially distant and masked audience in Yellow Springs. It was released on Netflix and titled “8:46,” in reference to the amount of time that Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, before Floyd died.