City centre Bierkeller venue officially closes
Bierkeller, sports bar Shooters and Smokin’ Bar & Kitchen in Leeds city centre have all closed.
Bierkeller Entertainment Complex (BEC) was forced to shut its doors after its new owners were refused a permanent tenancy.
Access Commercial Investors 6 took over the three-bar site on South Parade in December after original owners, bar company BurningNight Group, went into administration.
The new owners were given a temporary tenancy for the venue, and for four other BEC’s in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham. As a result, the bars were able to continue operating as normal.
At the time, all jobs were secured and Leeds-based ACI6 hoped to secure a permanent agreement with the administrators and landlords for each venue.
On Friday 5 April, however, the company received notice that its occupational rights for Leeds BEC had been terminated and the site – comprising Bierkeller, sports bar Shooters and Smokin’ Bar & Kitchen – was closed with immediate effect.
A spokesperson from ACI6 said: “We had no advance knowledge and were given no warning of this and, as a result, everyone has been left in unnecessary limbo by the sudden closure.
“It was always our intention to remain in the existing premises as long as possible and try to secure a permanent tenancy. Our primary concern when we took over the business was to keep it running and to secure the jobs of everyone working at each site.
“This decision has left us unable to do this, it has been taken out of our hands, and it is obviously not the outcome we were looking for.
“Bierkeller Leeds employs 60 people and their roles, as they were, now no longer exist with no notice which we believe was completely unnecessary. Even if the final outcome could not have been avoided, we feel there could have been a more open communication and the wind down process could have been more controlled to minimise the impact on staff.”
He added: “We are currently in discussions with staff from Leeds to assess possible alternative employment options elsewhere in the business.”
