GARY | The owner of the nightclub where Michael Jackson made his professional debut with the Jackson Five wants to sell the building to fans of the King of Pop, brick by brick.

Andrew Young, a local businessman, said he bought the shuttered Mr. Lucky's Lounge about a year ago and had the idea of revitalizing it or perhaps selling off pieces as Jackson memorabilia.

"If we have enough interest, we will take it apart by hand, piece by piece, being very careful to preserve every single thing," Young said when contacted at home Friday.

Steeltown Records founder Gordon Keith, who first signed the Jackson Five, has confirmed numerous times that Mr. Lucky's is the first club the boy band hit after winning a city-wide talent contest in 1966. They were paid $7.

"This is how it all started," Young said. "Back then, you had to have talent and claw your way up from the bottom."

Young is now in the process of starting up a Web site where interested bidders can view some of the memorabilia from Mr. Lucky's. He also is exploring using online-auction Web sites for the sale.

Mr. Lucky's, at the corner of Grant and 11th avenues, closed a few years ago. It is a red brick building with some limestone brick facing that has seen better days. Its windows are boarded up, steel jackposts hold up the overhang, and a sign on the door tells people they must be 21 to enter.

Inside is an intact glass-block bar and a hardwood wooden stage that Young says is the one the Jackson 5 first performed on. Photos of the Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson from the "Thriller" era grace the walls, as well as records and record jackets, which are nailed to the walls.

It is just one mile from the Jackson family home at 2300 Jackson Street.

Young's business, Andy's Truck & Equipment, is just across the intersection from Mr. Lucky's. On the day of Jackson's death, he removed the big backlit "Mr. Lucky's" sign on the building. The name remains etched on the front door.

Since Jackson's death, Young said he has posted security at the building 24 hours a day.

Shortly after buying the building last year, Young said he was contacted by a documentarian for the A&E Network about shooting some footage of the club. Phillip Koch, of Point 7 Entertainment, even came to scout it out but did not return. Young also said he was negotiating with a Gary nightclub owner, who is his tenant elsewhere in the city, about reopening Mr. Lucky's.

He knows of no plans to preserve the building, although there has been much talk in Gary since Jackson's death of establishing some kind of memorial in the city, perhaps at the Jackson family home.

Dismantling and selling off Mr. Lucky's to fans around the world would allow them all to "own" a little piece of the pop idol, Young said.

"I don't think we would find anyone who would say, 'Guys you shouldn't do this,'" Young said.

Those interested in knowing more can e-mail him at mrluckysbricks@yahoo.com.