Shock closure of two venues as landlord takes possession

The Queen Victoria Arts Club and The Exchange in Leicester have suddenly closed after the venues’ landlord allegedly forced his way inside and took possession of them.

The Queen Victoria Arts Club only opened last year as a resturant and members club, opposite Curve Theatre. It was owned by Cassie Davison – daughter of Leicester city mayor Sir Peter Souslby –  who said she had wanted to convert the Grade 2 listed Victorian Baroque property for some time.

The two venues employed around 30 people.

In the nine years that arts venue, bar and cafe The Exchange has been open it has been a finalist and won numerous awards including Highly Commended at the Visit England Tourism Awards.

However, on the morning of 22nd October, both businesses were closed by the landlord and shareholder.

A statement from the venue said: “When developing and opening Queen Victoria Arts Club we entered into a business relationship with the landlord of both properties and as 50 per cent shareholder he committed to supporting the business through the first few years of initial growth.

“In the past few months however he made it clear that he no longer wished to support and fund the business and so in good faith we started the search for alternative investment.

“Though we spoke with a number of individuals and organisations we had a preferred investor who had started serious and viable negotiations with the landlord.

“Despite this however, the landlord ceased all negotiations, crowbarred his way into the properties and locked us out taking possession.

“We have been speaking with himin order to find a way forward however he has made it clear that he is no longer prepared to negotiate with us or our potential investor and therefore with great sadness and disappointment our businesses have ceased trading.

“It is difficult to see the logic behind this decision and we are of the view that both businesses have been taken from us.

“Whilst this is a massive blow and will have a huge financial and personal impact on us our thoughts are with our extremely loyal suppliers who, like us, are small local businesses and will be out of pocket and of course our immensely professional and caring staff who not only have been made redundant but will also lose income.

“The next few weeks are going to be particularly difficult but we take great pride in everything that we have achieved over the past 10 years in the Cultural Quarter.”

“We would like to thank all our wonderful and eclectic customers who have made our working day so enjoyable over the years. Our suppliers who have supported us and without exception our amazingly professional and talented team of staff who we hope, despite the inevitable shock and anxiety that this news will create, find good fortune in their futures.”

However, the landlord has hit back, saying the two venues were on ‘life support’.

A statement on behalf of landlord East Bridgeford Investments said: “His commitment to the success of this ambitious project is demonstrated by his £400,000 contribution to the initial fit-out, the provision of £250,000 working capital to keep the business running and, in particular, a further £60,000 cash injection over the last three months.

“Given that the business has required his ‘life-support’ for the past eight months and the signing of surrender documents by the tenant yesterday, today’s unfortunate events should be no surprise to the management of QVAC.

“Discussions were ongoing until Monday night, but the landlord decided that a loss of over £700,000 was not recoverable and, in the absence of an alternative investor being found during the last six months, was left with little alternative to accepting the surrender.

“The landlord has worked for 20 years to refurbish the beautiful buildings in the Cultural Quarter, providing opportunities for independent and distinctive business such as Exchange and QVAC.”