Pretty much all the Leicester Business Festival events which found themselves homeless when the two venues they planned to use closed without notice have found new homes.
Prominent Leicester bars the Queen Victoria Arts Club and The Exchange had been due to host six events during the two week festival which starts today.
However, both properties in Leicester’s Cultural Quarter – which have the same management and the same landlord – closed abruptly last Tuesday.
A property agent acting for landlord East Bridgeford Investments Ltd has said the decision to close both bars was made because of outstanding rent of “almost £60,000”.
Some 32 people have lost their jobs.
The organisers of the business festival, which will see 115 events take place this year, said the local business community had rallied round to find alternative venues for the six affected events.
A spokeswoman said:
A Well Designed Social Media event on October 28 had moved to Curve
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We Love Surveys on October 29 has moved to the City Rooms
A Team Leicester event on October 31 has moved to the IBM offices, in New Walk
A Mocha Marketing event on October 31 is now at the Parcel Yard
A Cyber Crime event on November 1 is now at Business Central
She said the organiser of a How to Use Canva event on November 7 was talking to a number of venues.
Alister de Ternant, managing director of Associate Events, which manages Leicester Business Festival, said the closure of the Queen Victoria Arts Club and the Exchange Bar was a “huge loss to Leicester’s Cultural Quarter”.
Adam Burdett, a director at property agents Intali, is marketing both premises for the landlord.
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He said he was “working hard with several interested parties to get both of these properties re-opened as soon as possible”.
Cassie Davison, who had run both bars, said she had been shocked they had had to close and was in the process of appointing an insolvency practitioner.
In an updated statement online she said: “Our priorities these first few days have been to reassure our staff who were all made immediately redundant.
“We have been able to ensure that they will all be paid and that they will all have alternative employment which as you can imagine has been a relief to both them and us.
“We would like to thank all the local businesses and individuals who have offered really generous support to our staff.”
She said customers who had lost deposits for party bookings should consider claiming back the money as part of the formal insolvency procedure.
She said: “Once we have official information regarding this we will contact all our customers directly with full advice.
“In the meantime we are also speaking with a number of other venues with regards being able to rehome the events and bookings, again once we have details we will let our customers know.
“Whilst we appreciate this is not ideal, we hope it reassures that we are working hard to try to negotiate the best possible outcome for all the hundreds of individuals this news impacts.
“Once we have more information we will be in touch directly with those affected.”