Austin’s historic Terp Ballrom will soon open its doors again in Austin as a place for music, dancing and other community events.

The El-Parral Ballroom will likely open in December.

Owner Custodio Serrano hopes the ballroom will be ready for a grand opening around Christmas. Miguel Garate said the grand opening will likely be a couples only dance featuring an orchestra to play a variety of music like tango, mamba and polkas. Serrano also owns Tienda Y Taqueria Guerrero Grocery Store & Mexican Food.

“This is for everybody all the different cultures,” said Garate, who has served as an adviser to Serrano through the process of purchasing and opening the building.

The ballroom will be a place for everyone in the community, and Garate said signs and different features in the ballroom will be bilingual to appeal to multiple cultures. Garate saida bilingual orchestra may be hired for the grand opening.

Garate said Austin is lucky because of its wide variety of cultures, and the ballroom will be a place where these people and cultures can come together.

Garate said the ballroom provides the community a place and a way to keep parties and weddings in Austin, rather than holding such events out of town.

“What I like best is it’s in our community,” Garate said.

Large dances will be held in the main ballroom on occasion. A bar to be located on the northeast side of the building could be open a few times a week. The bar will host smaller parties, and Garate said he hopes to host a birthday party in the bar. Live music will also be featured on a small stage in the bar, but Garate said there won’t be any music that’s too loud.

The ballroom will also be open for weddings, private parties and meetings. A large room running along the southern side of the ballroom will be used for indoor soccer. The basement of the building will only be used for storage.

The ballroom will have security, and there could someday be a room for parents to drop their children off when attending a dance.

Serrano and his family and friends have spent a lot of time and money renovating the ballroom. The ballroom will feature a new roof and some renovated walls. A new entrance leading to the back parking lot will lead guests through an entrance Garate compared to walking down the red carpet.

The process to open the ballroom has required work from many people in the community. Paul Johnson of Paul Johnson Architects Inc. has worked with Serrano on the project to update the building.

Johnson said the new ballroom will be good for the community of Austin, and he said Serrano will be able to utilize the entire building.

“He’s really excited, and I think a large majority of the community is excited to see something happening there in a positive way,” Johnson said.

“They’re going to try to cater to not only the Hispanic community, but the community at large,” he added.

Johnson’s main role has been to make sure the building meets code, which can be very difficult when dealing with such a large building.

When the building was the Vineyard Church, it was classified as an A3 property, which often includes buildings like churches. A great deal of work was required for the building to meet code as an A2 property, which is necessary with more intensive use and more occupants per square foot. Other A2 properties include restaurants, bars and banquet halls, Johnson said.

Johnson said the building will be able to hold about 1,100 people.

A big part of meeting A2 standards is meeting fire code. Summit Fire Protection out of Rochester was hired to install a sprinkler and alarm system. The building will also feature a recorded announcement to help guide people to exits in case of an emergency, said Fire chief Dan Wilson.

“Everything will be done to code,” Wilson said. “It’s fully sprinkled. It will be one of the safest buildings in town in the event of a fire.”

The new sprinkler system is a welcome addition, especially for a building as large as the ballroom, Wilson said. In the event of a fire, the sprinklers will control and often times put a fire out before the fire department can arrive on scene.

“From a fire standpoint, it’s a much safer building for us with a sprinkler system,” Wilson said. “Sprinklers are firefighters best friend.”

Wilson said the downtown fire last year burned unchecked, and a sprinkler system would have slowed the fire long enough for the fire department to put it out.

Garate said he and Serrano are excited to see the ballroom near its grand opening, and he hopes it’s a place people in the community can enjoy for years to come.

“It’s back, it’s alive, and we’re going to keep it going,” Garate said.