(November 21, 2012 - Calgary) Photo courtesy Monika Deviat/metal-rules.com
Owners of the Distillery Nightclub revealed in a Facebook posting earlier this evening that the iconic live music venue's lease has been revoked and will be forced to close by 4:30 PM on November 30th.
Philly Roach, a member of the ownership group posted on Facebook (verbatim):
Hello all, it's with a heavy heart that I'm posting this.
As of last Wednesday, we've been informed that our landlords (The THL Group) are being sued by the property owners (Manulife) for numerous breaches of lease spanning many years, none of which were brought to our attention until recently. As a result of this litigation, their lease has effectively been terminated, as of Nov. 30th. As shit rolls downhill, however, our sub-lease has also been terminated, as well as the restaurant above us. Every occupant of the building is evicted as a result of their carelessness and gross negligance. We've done all we legally can regarding this, from trying to get an extension to securing a new lease through Manulife, to no avail. The property is in a state of disrepair and it looks like it's going to be torn down to make room a new building, although that's speculation at this point.
The bottom line is, we have to vacate the property, through NO FAULT OF OUR OWN, by Nov 30 at 4:30pm. To be clear, this is in NO WAY due to unpaid rent, bills or anything of that nature. This has blind-sided us, in a very real & very bad way.
On the bright side however, we have been looking at other properties for a short while, as we've been unhappy with our landlords for some time, and we WILL be moving into another location. That being said, we were not expecting a move this quick. Hopefully we'll have an answer soon, however at this stage it's all guesswork.
It pains us greatly to have to break this to you all, as I'm sure you're aware of how passionate we are about our livelihood, our scene, and all of you, our family. All I can hope is that you can understand that this is completely out of our hands.
I truly regret having to send you all this message, but please, trust me, we have a lot more at stake than anyone. Make no mistake, it may take a month or more, but we WILL be back.
Again, to be clear, all shows from Nov 30 on have all been effectively terminated.
I know a lot of you will have questions, but as you can imagine we have a lot on our plate at the moment so please respect that and understand that this will all come to light soon enough, and we WILL be vindicated, although at a tremendous loss. In the meantime please keep speculation and questions to a minimum, unless of course you have a vested interest in our business, in which case we will provide you with any/all information you wish, to do with what you will.
We will be having a series of benefit shows to help with legal costs, ects. If you would like to support us in that regard, please feel free to contact us. We could use as much help as possible.
Thank you for your continued support, and try to have a great holiday season.
Philly, Andy, Taco, Mark & staff.
Prior to becoming the Distillery, the venue was known as Lucifer's. With it's unique half dome ceiling over the dance floor, the stage hosted both local and international entertainers, mostly from the Punk and Metal genres.
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