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Ryan Byther talks with suppliers Wednesday as he works to open an Italian restaurant in the former Pavilion nightclub. Plans for redevelopment also call for a retail mall.

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The vault from the bank that once operated at 188 Middle St. will be used as a wine cellar for a new restaurant, Luna Rossa, which is expected to open this summer.

enlarge Doug Jones/Staff Photographer

Matt Darlington of Peerless Painting works on the former Pavilion building, which is getting a face-lift two years after the nightclub closed.

PORTLAND — The backers of redevelopment at the landmark building at 188 Middle St., most recently home to the Pavilion nightclub, are gambling that they can overcome a bad economy by providing a taste of Las Vegas in Maine.

The space is being converted into an Italian restaurant, a banquet facility and a retail mall. The indoor galleria concept is modeled after the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

The restaurant will offer entertainment by Dueling Piano Services, which provides talent to the New York New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The performances are a "high-energy blend of singalong and comedy," according to the company's Web site.

Despite the recession, people still want to have fun if they can do it locally and at a reasonable price, said Ryan Byther, the restaurant's owner.

"They want a taste of the good life," he said.

The restaurant, Luna Rossa, will feature traditional Italian cooking. The chef is Antonio Bruno, who has worked in New York City and grew up on Capri, an island off the coast of Italy.

The restaurant will occupy two floors, with seating for about 200 people. Byther, one of the former owners of Prost/Club Onyx, said Luna Rossa should open by early summer.

So far, the restaurant is the building's only tenant, occupying a third of the 14,000-square-foot space in the Old Port. The site has been empty since the Pavilion closed abruptly in February 2007.

The Pavilion was once one of the city's premiere nightclubs. In 2005, it was renamed 188 Bourbon Street for a time, during which it was known for rowdy dance parties. A high number of fights outside the club led to City Council sanctions.

The building's unusual features include marble floors, a high-arched ceiling, ornate plaster and fluted columns. Renovation for the restaurant alone cost a half-million dollars, Byther said.

The building was constructed after the Great Fire of 1866 for Canal National Bank. It once was home to H.M. Payson & Co., one of the oldest independent investment firms in the nation.

Many Portlanders remember it as the last store of the A.H. Benoit Clothing Co., a family-owned Maine chain that went out of business in 1995.

The store's closing that year represented the end of the era of downtown department stores in Portland.

The building, now called the "Shops at 188 Middle," is being marketed by Paragon Commercial Real Estate.

Richard McGoldrick, who lives in Cape Elizabeth, owns the entire block. His other tenants include Starbucks, Stonewall Kitchen and Cold Stone Creamery.

He said he bought 188 Middle St. six or seven years ago. Since the Pavilion closed, he has been trying to figure out what to do with the space. He said he didn't want to lease it to another bar or nightclub.

Several nearby stores have gone out of business during the recession, and "For Lease" signs have cropped up all over the district. Still, McGoldrick said he's not worried about filling the space, because Middle Street is in the heart of the popular Old Port.

"I'm confident that ultimately the Old Port will revive," he said.

Staff Writer Tom Bell can be reached at 791-6369 or at:

tbell@pressherald.com