A former concert club (or nightclub) in downtown Kitchener, Ontario.
Formerly owned by Tony DiBattista, it, along with a nearby sports bar, were purchased by the City Of Kitchener for $3.75 million (Canadian dollars) and a piece of property worth $200,000. The City of Kitchener has a grand vision for downtown revitalization which involved demolishing the older buildings in the core. Demolition began May 3, 2002, after the club closed in March, 2002.
Interestingly enough, Tony did not want to sell The Lyric, as it was doing quite well financially, and it had a good reputation among students in the area who attended one of the nearby universities. However, the City threatened to reappropriate the property if he did not sell. This made a lot of people angry, but it still happened.
It was originally built as a stage theatre in the early 1900s, and was considered a landmark. It had beautiful interior design, in the style of many old theatres, even when it was a concert club. Later it became a movie theatre, before closing. It was reopened in the 1990s by Tony as a cheap second-string movie theatre, but was losing money, so was reopened as a dance club.
Because of it's large capacity, it attracted a lot of bands to play in the area, such as The Tea Party, The Headstones, Wide Mouth Mason, Finger Eleven, Fear Factory, Foo Fighters and many other over the years after Lulu's, a nearby bar and concert venue, closed at the end of 1999.
When demolition is complete, the City intends to use the space as a temporary park until a developers are found to transform the block.
(Information pulled from The Record newspaper (http://www.therecord.com/) and personal experience)