Plan 9 Music will allow its lease in the Anderson Brothers Building on the Corner to expire at the end of May, which will lead to the closure of music venue Satellite Ballroom. This announcement, which Plan 9 owner James Bland said he will make public today, comes after months of speculation as to whether the Richmond-based chain would abandon its Corner location, forcing its three subtenants -- Higher Grounds Coffee, Just Curry and Satellite Ballroom -- to look elsewhere for space.
Though Plan 9 had the option of extending its 10-year lease in the building by an additional five years, Bland said such a decision was not as financially viable as consolidating with the chain's other Charlottesville location in the Albemarle Square Shopping Center.
"Retail sales for recorded music are withering away," Bland said. "Over the last few years we've seen declines in all of our stores, but especially at those stores that are close to campuses where students are the primary clientele."
The announcement of Plan 9's departure was delayed by months of legal wrangling, which ultimately failed to preserve space for Satellite Ballroom.
"We held on quite a long time, trying to make that work," Bland said of discussions with the building's owner, Terry Vassalos, to maintain Satellite Ballroom. "I feel sad and bad for them. [Vassalos] has his reasons. Like them or not, it's his decision. We tried to make it work."
Satellite Ballroom, which became a leading music venue in town following the closure of Starr Hill Music Hall during summer 2007, will close its doors after a more than three-year run of hosting bands, dance parties and other events on the Corner. The venue currently has concerts scheduled through mid-May, but was forced to cancel a farewell concert scheduled for May 31, as the Ballroom's sublease expires that day, booking agent Danny Shea said.
"They're not even giving us 72 hours," Shea said of the building's owner and lawyers pushing the tenet to move out, adding that negotiations to reassign the building's lease also failed. "I had a show booked for [May 31], and it was going to be our blowout last show. It took over two weeks to hear back from the lawyers to tell us that they didn't want any sign of us, midnight [May 31]."
The Ballroom is now looking for another space in town to host concerts, said Shea, who did not offer any further comment as to where he is looking. Considering the venue's three-year history, he said it may have been the Ballroom's tenure with Plan 9 in the Anderson Brothers Building that made it more appealing to new tenants considering the building.
"If it wasn't for Plan 9 and, furthermore, Satellite Ballroom pumping renovations and life into this property, then CVS wouldn't have been interested in this place." Shea said, alluding to a widely circulated rumor that a CVS Pharmacy might move into the building.
Though Vassalos said during March he was "talking" with officials from CVS about the space, no official announcement about a store in Charlottesville has been made by CVS. Vassalos could not be reached for further comment.
The Anderson Brothers Buildings' other subtenants, Higher Grounds Coffee and Just Curry, have been left out of discussions regarding Plan 9's lease and changes to the building, their owners said. As a result, they do not have immediate plans for how they will handle the end of their subleases.
"It's business as usual until someone says something," Higher Grounds owner Joe Trager said, who added he plans to run his coffee kiosk until he is told otherwise. "A little information would have been nice for us. We're trying to feed our kids and do that stuff. It would have been nice to have a little information for us to plot our future."
Higher Grounds Coffee will continue to operate in its two locations inside the Martha Jefferson Hospital and the University Medical Center, where Trager said it generates most of its profit.
Just Curry owner Alex George echoed a similar sentiment.
"I've not been in the loop," George said. "You have to roll with the punches and take it as it comes. I'm not necessarily tied to [the Anderson Brothers Building], but I do think I am tied to the Corner."
His establishment, about two years old, has a new second location inside the Downtown Transit Center. George said he will look elsewhere on the Corner to keep two locations in Charlottesville.
Considering the future of the Anderson Brothers Building, Bland said while he suspects CVS may be the new tenant, he wished the property could have been divided to keep space for the subtenants.
"Our time is done and has been done for a while," Bland said of Plan 9 on the Corner. "We hung on for a while with all the parties to see if we could make this work, but it didn't"
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