hurricanes.soho & blazing sattles.
owners packed up @ night & skipped town.
bailed on over 200k of debt

11/13/2007 12:37:32 PM

wat

11/13/2007 12:38:03 PM

sattles

11/13/2007 12:38:13 PM

what?!??! are you serious?

11/13/2007 12:38:15 PM

This would be AWESOME if true!!!

All 3 of those places sucked ass the 1 time I went - I definitely left after 15 minutes of lame bullshit!

11/13/2007 12:39:15 PM

yep.. fo so..
lol.... sattles. posting from my fone. spell check is fighting auto complete

11/13/2007 12:40:25 PM

wral ran the story @ noon
those places suxed anyway

11/13/2007 12:42:07 PM

it's true, but hurricanes had good waffle fries.... but that's about it

11/13/2007 12:43:22 PM

Those places sucked balls

11/13/2007 12:44:41 PM

Depot Derailed as Nightclubs Close


Posted: 11 minutes ago
Updated: 1 minute ago

Raleigh — Three nightclubs in the recently restored warehouse district west of downtown Raleigh closed without warning last weekend, leaving dozens of people unemployed.

Trucks packed up equipment from The Hurricane, Blazin' Saddles, and Soho East over the weekend. Half-empty beer bottles still sat on bars inside the clubs on Tuesday, and unhooked cables hung from the walls where plasma televisions were once located.

The three West Davie Street clubs were part of The Depot, owned by Rochester, N.Y., businessman Ronnie Davis. The project was part of an effort to revitalize the warehouse district near the Amtrak rail station west of downtown.

Six years ago, the North Carolina Railroad Co. spent more than $2 million to restore the 1912 Southern Railway freight depot. The building sat empty for several years before Davis leased the property last year and began outfitting it for the three clubs.

As he walked though the empty building Tuesday, plumbing contractor Don Luther said a financial dispute between Davis and the NCRR led to the sudden closures.

"We were supposed to be paid five days after the job was completed. That was our guarantee by the railroad," Luther said, noting he is still owed $49,000 for plumbing work he did in the clubs.

"Everybody backed out of it," he said. "We've got a lien going right now on this building and the owners."

NCRR officials declined to comment on the closures, but issued a statement that said Davis "apparently has abandoned the business in Raleigh" but hasn't provided any notice of termination of the lease.

Ben Kuhn, an attorney for Davis, also declined to comment on any financial dispute. He said Davis was sorry for leaving about 40 full- and part-time workers without jobs and leaving subcontractors with unpaid bills.

"It has been our intention to add to and continue Raleigh's development. We regret any hardship or impact immediate closure had on North Carolina Railroad Co., subcontractors, employees, residents and patrons," Kuhn said.

Dave Jackson, a bar manager at The Hurricane, said employees weren't given any notice about the closures. But he said the moves didn't surprise him.

"I think it was just a little too big for Raleigh at this point in time," Jackson said. "Probably two years from now, it would have been a better idea."

The Depot opened to great fanfare in August, with a block party to attract people downtown. But an incident involving country-rock singer Uncle Kracker drew even more attention to the area.

The singer, whose real name is Matthew Shafer, was arrested at a Cary hotel after a woman accused him of groping her in a downtown bar after he performed at The Depot block party.

Shafer pleaded guilty in September to a misdemeanor assault charge and was sentenced to a year on probation.

Unemployed workers said Tuesday the incident had very little to do with closures.

Reporter: Dan Bowens
Photographer: Richard Adkins
Web Editor: Matthew Burns

11/13/2007 12:48:03 PM

I saw that on the WRAL Noon News.

Judging by the amount of debt, I guess you can say DEPWNT!

11/13/2007 12:48:11 PM

Quote :

"RALEIGH, N.C. -- Three downtown bars will close, according to a statement issued Monday. The Depot Nightclubs, 327 W. Davie St., are now closed, according to a MySpace bulletin. Blazing Saddles, The Hurricane Sports Bar and SoHo East were closed due to "unfortunate events," the statement said. "There will no longer be any operation in the buildings, they have been cleared out and everyone there has had to find new jobs," the statement said. "Sad as this is it was starting to go well, just political hoopla caused it to end. Thank you to everyone who came out and supported us though!" The bars are owned by RDG Inc., which operates nightclubs in Rochester, NY, Syracuse, NY, Buffalo, NY and Denver, Colo. RDG company representatives could not be reached Monday. "

hahaha..... they "informed" people via myspace....

11/13/2007 1:10:42 PM

Actually I think it might be the NCRR who is at fault for not paying the contractors. Then I bet they tried to pass the buck to the depot clubs. At which point they were like, "hellll no" and bailed.

11/13/2007 2:09:21 PM

Good riddance. It was a terrible idea to begin with.

"Hey! Let's put at least 5 bars in the same block, make sure that its far away from where our customers live, and hope that they don't run each other out of business!"

11/13/2007 2:15:13 PM

^^ if that was the case they wouldn't have packed everything up in trucks and took the hell off without saying anything...

any his lawyer wouldn't be apologizing either

11/13/2007 2:15:36 PM

^ I really have no idea.

If you watch the WRAL video, the contractors were supposed to be paid by the RR as the RR originally renovated the building. I think the lawyer is appologizing for abandoning the employees and is sympathetic to the contractors being in the middle of all this.

But I dunno, I'm really hyped up on caffeine right now so I could be misinterpreting things.

11/13/2007 2:27:02 PM

those places all sucked anyway

11/13/2007 2:34:42 PM