Owner: Won?t be involved with Toad?s Place any longer

By Melissa Ruggieri

Published: March 12, 2009

Monday\'s closing of Toad\'s Place shocked Charles Joyner as much as it did area music fans.

The principal investor in the venue on the Canal Walk said when he found out four days ago that the locks had been changed and a legal notice posted at the club, the events were completely unexpected.

Joyner said today that his investment group, Turning Point Development, has no intention of being involved with the venue any longer. So the business will remain closed.

"We do owe rent. There\'s no question about that," Joyner said in an exclusive interview. "But that was a known issue. We had been cooperating with the landlord [Fulton Hill Properties] since the fall of\'08 to continue on with the project, to try to make it better, to raise it to a level where it was bringing in a revenue that would support the rent. . . . But the cooperation broke down rather abruptly last week, unbeknownst to me."

Margaret Freund, owner of Fulton Hill Properties, said she had no choice but to shutter the building, which opened in June 2007 and has attracted hundreds of top name concerts.

"There may have been things that Charles was thinking that weren\'t being communicated to the landlord," she said. "At the end of the day, they pretty much forced us to do what we did. We\'re not in the position to subsidize his business."

Both Joyner and Freund declined to say how much money was owed.

Joyner points to several factors that restricted Toad\'s success.

The venue, he said, was never intended to be used strictly for live music, but instead to co-exist as a dance club.

An incident in late September, during which the NAACP accused the venue of discrimination for canceling some urban-oriented events -- a misunderstanding that was quickly resolved by both sides -- left a bruise on Toad\'s reputation.

"What struck me about that situation was the viral spread of poorly founded information," Joyner said. "But once it gets going, you can hardly stop it."

That fall, substantial rap acts including Nelly and Mos Def, already had been booked to perform at the venue. Joyner believes that since those artists had done well in other markets, the negative impact of the NAACP incident was the reason only about 500 people attended each show in a venue that can accommodate 1,500.

"That shaved off quite a slice of potential shows we could get in the future," he said.

Next month, however, had looked to be one of the nightspot\'s strongest schedules, with sellouts for pop singer Lady GaGa and indie songstress Neko Case.

Joyner said some shows could be moved to The National; sources at that venue couldn\'t confirm plans tonight.

The future for Toad\'s Place is also undecided.

Building owner Freund said she\'s received calls from several interested parties; some want to retain it as a music venue and others to use the space differently.

Joyner said he\'s experiencing a range of emotions.

"I\'m a little relived at some of the finality of it, but the loss of such a great spring run of events is pretty painful," he said. "That was a culmination of so much effort and it didn\'t have to go the way it did."

This sucks.  I\'ve never been in a finer club.  Take everything wrong with the New Haven site- make it PERFECT, and that\'s what you had.  

However, they were at a huge disadvantage down there.  Most of the acts Toad\'s New Haven gets are passing through town anyway.  Richmond just doesn\'t see anywhere near that traffic, and it made booking acts a tough sell.

Quote from: Spacey;222923

Quote from: wildcoyote;222921

This sucks.  I\'ve never been in a finer club.  Take everything wrong with the New Haven site- make it PERFECT, and that\'s what you had.  

However, they were at a huge disadvantage down there.  Most of the acts Toad\'s New Haven gets are passing through town anyway.  Richmond just doesn\'t see anywhere near that traffic, and it made booking acts a tough sell.

Doesn\'t sound like Toad\'s Place qualified the location. Not too much planning.

It was franchised by 2 Yale alums living in Richmond.  They paid New Haven an upfront fee, and small %\'s annually but New Haven had very little to do with decesions made in VA.

An incident in late September, during which the NAACP accused the venue of discrimination for canceling some urban-oriented events -- a misunderstanding that was quickly resolved by both sides -- left a bruise on Toad\'s reputation.

so am I the only one who mis-read this and thought a group of people who live in richmond owned toads new haven and that one had closed? I was all confused for a few minutes there.

me = dumbass