The company that has quietly acquired more than $8 million worth of Covington real estate for a major commercial-residential development has filed suit against the owners of the Continental Lounge for failing to pay rent for more than three months.
Covington Square LLC, part of the Lantrust Real Estate Group in Cincinnati, claims in the suit that Cincinnati's Sheridan Heuser LLC broke the one-year lease on 318 Greenup St. when they began falling behind on their $7,500-a-month rent in July.
The suit, filed in Kenton Circuit Court, claims Scott Sheridan and Joshua Heuser owe Covington Square at least $30,340.
The Continental Lounge, which opened as a high-end members only club last December, closed Oct. 6 after Covington Square padlocked five doors at the front and rear of the building.
Heuser, who had worked with Sheridan in the development of Club Clau and Purgatory in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine, acknowledged that his partnership had fallen behind in the rent.
Heuser said he and his partners had been in discussions about repaying their back rent and renegotiating a new lease when they found that the building had been padlocked.
Heuser said he and Sheridan decided to open the club in Covington because of the potential they saw in the neighborhood just east of the Kenton County Jail and administration building at Third and Court streets.
The partners were encouraged by the groundbreaking for The Ascent at Roebling's Bridge, a 21-story high-end condominium project; a thriving Donna's Diner across Greenup Street from the Continental Lounge building, and Covington Square plans to create the Jump '05 nightclub in the old Monarch Tool building on Fourth Street, Heuser said.
"They showed us the Covington Square plans, and we were excited about them and we thought 'it's happening' in Covington," said Heuser, referring to a slogan the city adopted as a number of new projects were unveiled in a short period of time. "We took a gamble that this would be the next entertainment district for the area.
"
When the partners originally signed the lease, they had planned to work closely with Jump '05, offering attractive deals to customers who might patronize clubs that would have been separated by about one block, Heuser said.
But when the Jump '05 plans never got off the drawing board and Donna's Diner closed for failing to pay taxes, Heuser said he and Sheridan felt like their club was isolated.
"We were prepared to be part of what was happening.
We didn't think we would be the only thing there," Heuser said.
The lease that was filed as an exhibit to the lawsuit is signed by Vincent L. Bryant, who is listed on the document as a managing member of Lantrust, which is described as the manager of Covington Square.
Bryant also is one of the principals in the Queen City Restaurant Group, which operated Cincinnati and Blue Ash restaurants that were closed down after they fell behind in their federal and state tax payments.
Queen City also operated Donna's Diner, which closed in June when it didn't pay about $45,000 that was due to the state of Kentucky.
Aref Bsisu, another principal in Lantrust and Covington Square, has said that there is no connection between Queen City and Lantrust.
News RSS