The homeowners of a small Palm Springs, Calif., venue are suing Marc Geiger and his firm SaveLive, claiming the previous WME agent deceived them into accepting an funding of their venue through the COVID-19 pandemic as a part of a ruse to take over the enterprise with out paying a good value.
In a lawsuit filed May 25, Melanie Tusquellas and Elizabeth Garo allege that The Alibi, a 200-capacity venue and restaurant in Palm Springs, had fallen on exhausting instances after the COVID-19 pandemic pressured its non permanent closure in 2020. Worried about dropping their funding, the 2 felt relieved after they started discussions with Geiger late that yr a couple of doable plan to save lots of the venue.
Geiger had hoped to ink offers with The Alibi and dozens of different venues in want of financing through the pandemic, providing struggling amenities a capital infusion in trade for 51% management of their enterprise. About a dozen venues accepted the deal, SaveLive officers would later declare.
Geiger, a former world co-head of music at WME, would name the enterprise SaveLive — and with the assistance of enterprise associate and former WME principal John Fogelman, he would go on to boost $135 million to spend money on the enterprise.
The association was interesting to Tusquellas — co-owner of the historic Edendale Grill & Bar and El Chavo Restaurant in Silverlake, Los Angeles — and Garo, a widely known L.A. expertise purchaser who had booked Spaceland, The Echo and The Echoplex and co-founded the Echo Park Rising Festival.
“Being able to partner with SaveLive is a dream come true,” Garo mentioned in an April 2022 press launch saying the partnership between The Alibi and SaveLive. “Tusquellas and I can stay true to our roots knowing we have their full support,” Garo continued, including, “It doesn’t hurt that we’ve known some of the people at SaveLive for years — we all came up through the business together.”
A key part of the settlement Geiger struck with Garo and Tusquellas, in response to the ladies’s legal professional, Miles Feldman, within the criticism, was that “SaveLive was committed to maintaining the character of the businesses with such existing owners continuing to have control of the operations.”
“Based on Geiger’s misrepresentations,” the criticism reads, Garo and Tusquellas offered a 51% possession curiosity in The Alibi to a holding firm managed by SaveLive and contributed their remaining 49% curiosity to a second holding firm managed by SaveLive. Under the deal, Garo and Tusquellas would retain the liquor license for The Alibi by a enterprise entity referred to as 369 Palm Inc, which entered into an settlement with Geiger’s group to function The Alibi’s concessionaire.
“Shortly after 369 Palm sold a majority interest in The Alibi, Save Live’s true intentions became crystal clear,” Feldman wrote within the civil criticism. SaveLive officers allegedly “insisted that its accountant be responsible for keeping the financial books and records for the concessions business,” regardless of an settlement that the concessions enterprise “would be run separately from SaveLive’s operation and booking of The Alibi.”
When met with objections, “SaveLive responded with personal threats and intimidation,” finally stifling “the resurgence of The Alibi, forcing it to close again in July 2022 less than four months after its grand re-opening,” the criticism reads.
After allegedly ignoring the concessionaire settlement and assuming management over meals and beverage earnings, SaveLive allegedly tried to power the ladies to promote their liquor license to SaveLive for less than a fraction of its honest market worth. When that failed, SaveLive officers allegedly used “repeated threats and intimidation” to attempt to power the ladies to switch their liquor license to DLS Events, a concessionaire and bar service firm that providers Live Nation shoppers just like the Palladium and the Wiltern in Los Angeles, together with 16 different venues beneath unique contract.
When Garo and Tusquellas refused, SaveLive shut down The Alibi and unsuccessfully tried to set off an choice within the concession settlement forcing the sale of the liquor license. The shutdown of the venue, nonetheless, rendered the liquor license inactive, inflicting it to be surrendered to the California Alcoholic Beverage Control company.
According to California regulation, the criticism claims, the liquor license for The Alibi “must be reactivated within one year; otherwise, the liquor license will be revoked, which would destroy the value of one of 369 Palm’s most valuable and prized assets.”
Garo and Tusquellas are suing SaveLive and Geiger for breach of contract, interference and fraud. They are asking for punitive damages in opposition to SaveLive, a cancellation of the concession settlement and a preliminary injunction forcing SaveLive to reopen The Alibi.
Geiger declined to touch upon the lawsuit and the allegations.
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