Building home to Dayton’s oldest gay bar goes to sheriff’s sale Friday

The building housing what’s believed to be Dayton’s oldest gay bar is headed to a sheriff’s foreclosure sale Friday.

The Stage Door building at 42-44 N. Jefferson Street is on the auction block for a minimum bid of $132,000. The three-story, 4,800-square-foot building was built in 1900, according to Montgomery County property records.

Wayne Kelley, who owns both the building and the business, said the Stage Door is the oldest gay bar in Dayton, “perhaps in the Midwest.”

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The business in its 58th year will remain open and operating normal hours, Kelley said.

“It’s going to stay open. Period,” he said. “We’ve got that taken care of.”

Asked if that would continue to be the case in coming months, Kelley said: “I don’t know what tomorrow brings.”

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U.S. Bankruptcy Court records show Kelley’s company, WK Investments, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last May. A filing at the time shows the Middlefield Banking Company as the largest creditor, with a total claim of $217,877.69 and total liabilities of $254,246.64.

WK Investments also once owned a building on East Second Street which housed Club Aquarius. The company sold that property in August 2016, according to county records.

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The appraised value of the Jefferson Street property up for auction is $198,000. About 20 other properties in foreclosure are up for bid beginning at 10 a.m. in the Commissioner’s Hearing Room on the 10th floor of the County Administration Building, 451 West Third St.

According to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s foreclosure site, the successful bidder for the Stage Door building will need a $5,000 deposit immediately after the sale. The deposit can be cash, certified check or a personal check with proper ID and signed at the sale. A personal check must be drawn from a local bank.

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The unpaid balance of the purchase price must be paid to the Montgomery County Sheriff by certified or cashier’s check within 30 days of the filing of the confirmation entry.

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