Site of 1977 Beverley Hills Supper Club fire enters new era

SOUTHGATE, Ky. (WXIX) - With the cutting of a ceremonial ribbon, the site of the devasting 1977 Beverley Hills Supper Club fire is entering a new era.

On Thursday, the ribbon was cut to officially open the Vicinity Apartments at Memorial Pointe.

"We'll never forget what took place in 1977, but at the same point too, this is a new area, a new light overall that I think has been shined on this community here," Southgate Mayor Jim Hamberg declared.

The fire that happened on May 28, 1977, turned into the worst mass casualty event in Tri-State history, leaving more than 150 people dead.

"All of a sudden about five minutes to 9 p.m., we recognized there was a fire in the Zebra room," remembers David Brock, who was a busboy at Beverley Hills Supper Club in 1977. "We had no idea the magnitude of it."

The flames quickly spread and the Supper Club burned to the ground. Among the 169 people killed were four unborn children.

"You never forget," says David Olliges with Vision Realty Group. "Anybody that's ever been in this area, that knows the area, you know where you were at on May 28, 1977. You never forget. They still talk about it."

In May 2020, the city of Southgate gave a builder permission to develop the 78-acre sight.

One month later, a group called Beverly Hills Respect the Dead protested to stop any construction.

"They were concerned where people had perished," Olliges explained.

The builder made promises to the group and followed through

They named the development Memorial Pointe and paid for and erected a permanent stone monument at the foot of the driveway.

With single homes now standing on the opposite end of the property, the new Vicinity Apartments were constructed next to the plot of land where the Supper Club once stood.

The builder also promised the group not to build in this area.