Students wanting to buy alcohol may have to search a little further now that Campus Liquors and the DownUNDer Pub near campus will soon be closing their doors for a  year to rebuild. Both businesses will still be located at 4220 5th Ave. North near the new Red Pepper and Dakota Textbook. The big change on the lot will be a set of new apartments.

The current plan is to have Campus Liquors and the DownUNDer Pub be on the first floor of an apartment complex  with an underground parking garage below. Other apartment complexes will be built behind as well.

The process started last summer when owner Ted Korol was approached about the idea.  Since then, the plan had to be worked out and finalized  with the Grand Forks City Council  and contractors .  The businesses plan to close in March and will take a year to complete and be reopened. Both Campus Liquors and the DownUNDer pub are owned by Ted Korol.

“It’s going to be the hot new place to move. This is the best place to build apartments,” manager and brother to Ted, Bill Korol said. “Every apartment in the vicinity is sold out, and I think these will be leased out before they are even finished. This area that we have here will be the fastest leased out apartments in the history of Grand Forks.”

One aspect of the vicinity that will be missing after construction will be the Celebrity Ballroom, located in the basement of the DownUNDer Pub, that has been used for concerts, wedding receptions, parties, and Greek formal and preference dances.

“We are kind of nostalgic about the Celebrity Ballroom closing,” Korol said. “We have had great times here, but it will be easier to operate now.”

Korol recalls the ballroom has had more than 1,000 wedding receptions and hosted entertainers such as Eddie Money, Foghat, Johnny Holmes and Nazareth.

UND alumni Kim Steinberger said that she has been to the Celebrity Ballroom many times for Greek-sponsored dances.

“It was pretty fun,” Steinberger said. “The staff was always nice and polite. I have a lot of good memories there.”

Steinberger thinks with all of the apartments in the area being built that Campus Liquors might increase its sales and the DownUNDer Pub could get more business with a new accessibility and convenient location.

“I think my brother and I will look forward to having some time off,” Korol said of waiting for construction to complete.

Ashley Marquis is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].