Seven months after former Waldorf Hotel operator Waldorf Productions Inc. went public with a plea for support and broke the news that developer Solterra had bought the Waldorf Hotel, the Royal Bank of Canada has launched a lawsuit seeking $168,179 from that company.
Thomas Anselmi, Ernesto Gomez, Laure-Elaine Cote and Claudia Fernandez were all named in the July 31 notice of civil claim along with Waldorf Productions.
The Royal Bank alleges that those defendants were guarantors for a loan made on June 13, 2011 that was worth $168,179 on July 28.
Anselmi told Business in Vancouver August 7 that he had no comment on the lawsuit nor an update on whether he, Gomez, Danny Fazio, David Duprey and Rachel Zottenberg are forging ahead with plans to renovate the Fox Theatre at 2321 Main Street.
Arts, culture and lifestyle blog VancouverIsAwesome.com reported in March that that group of principals had signed a lease on the former porn theatre and were planning to open a new venue by this fall.
“We are hoping to do something exciting, fun and progressive with the space but we have a long way to go,” VancouverIsAwesome.com quoted Duprey as saying. “City Hall is extremely supportive of the project. Though sorting out the proper licensing is never easy, we’re confident we can be up and running quickly and create the kind of venue that Vancouver could really use right now.”
The Waldorf Productions principals said in their January release that they had signed a 15-year lease on the Waldorf Hotel. They then noted that they had proceeded “at great financial and sweat equity costs, with no assistance from the landlord to restore the building to its former glory.”
The Waldorf Productions principals admitted that they had fallen behind on their rent and claimed that landlord Marko Puharich was initially sympathetic. They then claimed that Puharich used Waldorf Productions’ tardiness with rent to break their lease and sell the property.
The City of Vancouver in May declared the Waldorf Hotel as a heritage site but city staff at the time stressed that the move would not necessarily save the former cultural hot spot.
The Waldorf Productions principals had by then left the hotel and formed a new company called Arrival.
That company’s website notes that the Arrival principals’s projects have included:
- revitalizing the Waldorf Hotel;
- reopening the Fox Theatre;
- programming FUSE events at the Vancouver Art Gallery;
- staging an all-ages show with Black Flag; and
- programming the Khatsahlano Art and Music Festival.
