A real estate holdings company owned by comedian Dave Chappelle has purchased an Oregon District building for $1.975 million.
New Montgomery County records show Iron Table Holdings LLC purchased the properties, including 101 Pine St., in the Oregon District, with nearby lots. About a third of an acre at 321 E. Fifth was part of the purchase.
The seller of all four parcels was Laff Ltd., operated by Daniel Lafferty.
101 Pine St. has been the home of Wiley’s Comedy Club and radio station WTUE and other stations.
Dan “Wiley” Lafferty opened Wiley’s Comedy Niteclub’s in 1982 at its original location at 970 Patterson Road. The club moved to its current location at 101 Pine in the Oregon District in 1990. Lafferty sold Wiley’s to comedian Rob Haney, who operated the club until he sold it to Bowers and his five business partners in late 2014.
Records give a transaction date of Wednesday for the building’s recent purchase. The deed gives a Yellow Springs address for Iron Table.
Val Beerbower, economic development manager for the Downtown Dayton Partnership, said the partnership has asked for some time if Chapelle was interested in the building.
Beerbower said Chapelle’s architect called a few months ago telling the partnership that a “high profile client” was looking for commercial space for his entertainment business, and the partnership offered him a sales flier for the space at 101 Pine.
“I don’t know anything else at this point,” she said.
Montgomery County records show these Dayton properties are the only properties Chappelle’s company owns in the county.
Chappelle has been active in area real estate, mostly in Greene County and Yellow Springs, where he has a home. Earlier this year, he was among those who expressed concerns about a plan for a new Oberer Homes development in Yellow Springs.
In February, after complaints from residents, including Chappelle, Yellow Springs Village Council voted 2-2 with one member recusing himself on a revised “planned unit development” zoning in that project.
That meant the zoning in question reverted to what was previously approved, with 143 single-family homes on the lot, with the homes starting at about $300,000, according to village documents, without a component for affordable housing.
Chappelle’s company then purchased the 52-acre property from Oberer.
Wiley’s is Ohio’s oldest comedy club and Dayton’s first comedy club.
