After a year of rumors and gossip, the news is finally official: Club Montage has been sold. The new owners won’t say much more than that, however, leaving the club’s future a mystery.

With escrow closing last week, new owners Chris Braga and Mark McDonough plan to reopen the club before summer. Braga, currently a realtor with Keller Williams, has experience in the bar and restaurant business in San Diego. McDonough brings years of experience in the promotion and entertainment industry.

The two friends became business partners when they saw the opportunity to reopen Club Montage.

“I’ve been interested in starting my own production company for the past five or six years, since I was young, even as a teenager,” McDonough said. “My whole life has been in entertainment. I have just found my niche, and have been waiting to find the right opportunity.”

“I’ve always wanted to own a restaurant or nightclub,” Braga said. “It’s my family business back East. I’ve been trying to do it, but just have not had the right opportunity come along. This is a golden opportunity. It really is.”

Club Montage closed one year ago this week, after the death of beloved community member and club owner John McCusker. McCusker died suddenly of a cardiac arrest due to drug intoxication in last March, while vacationing at Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort. The McCusker family immediately shut down the club after his death.

The business duo started discussing the prospect of reopening Club Montage about nine months ago when they first met. Their discussion didn’t become serious for another several months.

“We kind of joked about it at the beginning. It wasn’t something we were seriously considering until about three months ago,” Braga said. “We just chatted about it, agreed upon everything, and made an offer 50 days ago.”

Braga and McDonough made a bid during their first tour of the facility, and their offer was accepted immediately. Braga was an acquaintance of McCusker, and visited the club many times, but it was closed before I even turned of age to go there,” McDonough said.

With the sale finalized, Braga and McDonough have initiated plans to renovate and reopen the club.

What will the new Club Montage be like? The two refused to answer that question.

“We’re going to have to be as vague as possible about that,” Braga said. “Let’s just say this: It is going to be like nothing you’ve ever seen before in San Diego.”

“It’s going to be totally unique, just outright fun,” McDonough added. “I’m not going to put a limit on what we are going to be doing. We’re just going for it.”

They would only confirm bits and pieces of what is to come, and they are still ambiguous with their answers.

Retaining its name, Club Montage will continue to cater to the GLBT community, but Braga and McDonough said they are not putting a label on the club. They would not give any hints of what renovations were taking place, except that a new sound and light system is being imported from the U.K. The rooftop sushi restaurant is staying with plans for expansion. No date has been set for the opening, but they do expect to be open seven days a week.

Montage has already hired a new bar manager and VIP coordinator, although Braga and McDonough declined to announce who they are. They will be holding a job fair in the next few weeks to hire the remaining staff.

“That’s part of the surprise,” McDonough said. “It’s going to be completely unique. There’s always going to be something to indulge in.”

McCusker also owned ReBar. That bar was sold in November to business owners Cuong Nguyen and Adam Cook. They closed the bar in December, and have been working to reopen the bar, although Cook said they are making it a neighborhood bar not catering exclusively to the GBLT community.