The Bank Nightlife has 10 days to pay up or get out of the former Mount Clemens Federal Savings & Loan building under a consent judgment entered today at a Macomb County district court.
Co-founder and managing partner Alexander Kristoff says the plan is to pay, and continue the dance club operations in July under a new owning company capitalized by new investors.
“We’ve been in negotiations about the lease for months now. All past due rent and tax money was place in escrow over two months ago while we work this out,” he said.
“The new company looks forward to starting a new lease and moving in a new direction. It’s been a difficult market to operate a high-end nightclub in Mt. Clemens, but we’re working through it.”
Kristoff, co-owner of A&R Macomb LLC with Ron Masters, signed the consent judgment entered today at 41B District Court in Clinton Township. Macomb County has owned the former bank building since 2004 and sought to evict the club over unpaid rent and property taxes on its lease, which lapses in 2017.
The consent judgment gives the bar owners until June 27 to pay up on a balance of $131,361 — $76,428 in back rent and interest and more than $54,900 in unpaid property taxes between late 2009 and the A&R’s petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in October 2010.
The company has stayed current on rent owed ever since the Chapter 11 filing, which a U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Steven Rhodes dismissed in April with the company’s consent, according to Macomb County Finance Director Pete Provenzano.
“It’s a landlord-tenant judgment, so all this really deals with is the possession (of the site),” Assistant Macomb County Executive Al Lorenzo said Thursday. “The money that may still be due or owing later, if they’re evicted, is a separate matter.”
The new owning company, MJ TBN Group LLC, is partly owned by investor Mike Jarbo and Kristoff said it should take over operations of the bank sometime around July 1, in a seamless transition after it negotiates a new lease.
Built in 1961 and designed by the late architect William Kessler, the former savings and loan building was vacant until A&R Macomb completed renovations in 2006 with assistance from Kessler’s daughter, Tamara Checkley.
A&R Macomb reported a net loss of $69,822 on revenue of $235,638 in the first eight months of 2010, including expenses of $28,500 for rent and more than $23,000 in advertising, according to a cash flow statement filed shortly after the bankruptcy petition. But Kristoff said the newly-formed company will be profitable.
“All arrangements and expenses were looked at across the board, and the business has worked on becoming lean,” he said.