By Elmer Ploetz

The Mohawk Place is dead. Long live the Mohawk! Or so it seems.

The papers were signed the night of the closing show of the Mohawk under its previous management on Jan. 31.

At the request of the people involved in the deal The Buffalo Hive held off on reporting it at the time, waiting until the deal was finalized and couldn’t be jeopardized.

However, now Buffalo Rising has reported the deal, quoting Bernice Radle, who is buying the building and the business along with Frank DiMaria, so we hope the transactions have finally reached that secure stage.

DiMaria, a successful businessman, is president of Frank’s Mr. Plumber and Frank’s Basement Systems. He’s also the drummer for HUNS, the last band on the bill Friday night/Saturday morning for the fundraiser.

Radle is executive director of Preservation Buffalo.

The deal also includes Electric Avenue, which is next to Mohawk Place.

It appears Mike Thor, who had managed the Mohawk Place from 2014 until last August, will be returning to that role. He was behind the bar for Friday night’s event and had put together proposals to buy an interest in the business and rebuild it before he left. Marty Boratin, who has booked the clubs for a majority of its 34 years in business, is also expected to stay.

The previous owner, Rick Platt, has been struggling with both health issues and the death of his father in the last few years and sources said management of the business had been neglected, with unpaid bills and unpaid bands putting the future of the Mohawk Place in peril.

The issue came to a head in early January and plans were made to close the club at the end of the month, before DiMaria and Radle came to the rescue.

Platt had saved the Mohawk Place in 2014, buying the Mohawk, renovating it and reopening it.

The club was opened under the Mohawk Place name by Pete Perrone in 1990. Perrone ran it until selling in 2009. The subsequent owners closed the venue in January of 2013.