PROVIDENCE — City license regulators have cleared the way for Providence’s largest nightclub to reopen under new ownership, despite opposition from Brown University and others.

The city Board of Licenses approved a transfer of the liquor license for The Complex, a downtown club with an allowed occupancy of 1,350, to E. Anthony Santurri, owner of a North Providence hair salon who has bar and nightclub management experience.

Santurri has an agreement to obtain the license from its current majority owner, Michael Kent, a real estate developer and longtime owner of Providence nightspots. But the license cannot be transferred without the license board’s approval of Santurri as a suitable licensee.

Andrew J. Annaldo, license board chairman, said that Santurri appears to be a good bet as an owner and that the club can be reopened with the existing license regardless of what critics and the license board might prefer.

Kent, who has locked horns with city officials numerous times over the years, had threatened to reopen The Complex himself and to admit patrons younger than the legal drinking age of 21 if the license board stood in the way of the transfer.

Brown University, plus individuals and groups concerned about public safety and related issues downtown and in the adjacent Jewelry District, as well as the police, are especially sensitive to the issue of under-21s going into bars and clubs. Regardless of the precautions that are taken, the underage people manage to get drunk and then misbehave, according to the police and concerned groups.

The Complex, at 180 Pine St., closed this year because it was doing a poor business.

Santurri has said that he wants to cater to a better-behaved crowd of ages 26 and older at that location, which would be renovated and renamed, but that he cannot rule out admitting the under-21 crowd.

The license board voted unanimously on Monday to approve the transfer.

“The board was willing to give him a chance to operate the facility” because he is cooperative and apparently capable, Annaldo said.

Al Dahlberg, director of state and community relations for Brown, reminded the license board at a public hearing three weeks ago that the university is relocating its medical school campus to the vicinity of Richmond Street, near the site of The Complex.

Brown said in a letter that the club would attract college students, plus patrons from other parts of the state where bars and clubs close earlier at night, and that there would be a rise in disorderly conduct that would harm Brown’s real estate as well as nearby blocks that are increasingly becoming residential.

Among those questioning the license transfer was Frank LaTorre, a coordinator of the Providence Hospitality Resource Partnership, a coalition of city government and others that is trying to promote a safer and more prosperous nightlife. He pointed out at the hearing that Santurri is a co-owner with Louis Peters of Finnegan’s Wake, a downtown pub, and that Peters is a co-owner of Level II, a nearby dance club that the police are trying to have shut down as a “disorderly house.”

Santurri, who bought a 25-percent financial interest in Finnegan’s Wake about nine months ago, said he has become personally involved in its management and that the pub is being operated responsibly.

The pub has been the focus of attention of the police and the license board in recent years, and police Lt. Michael Figuereido told the board that problems linger. Annaldo said, however, that the board has seen improvement.

gsmith@projo.com