Manchester e-commerce giant Boohoo has deemed a Northern Quarter venue unsafe, forcing hundreds of musicians to vacate the premises.
The the retailer bought Grade II-listed Marlsbro House for £3.7m last month, according to land registry records.
The former mill - at the junction of Hilton Street on Newton Street - is a popular rehearsal space of Manchester musicians and known for its distinctive panel cladding.
In recent decades, a generation of artistic talent from across Greater Manchester and beyond has used the building, a labyrinth of recording studios, practice rooms and performance space.
Among them is Tom Long, singer-songwriter in the band Easter.
He has rented a rehearsal space for around ten years in a part of the building known as Sunshine Studios.
The name originally belonged to a dance company that fostered talents including George Sampson, the street dancer who won Britain's Got Talent in 2008.
Though the dance company left, the name stuck and bands such as Easter have relied on 'Sunshine' as a place to hone their sound ever since.
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"There's hundreds of bands thats practice here going back decades through the whole Manchester scene," said Tom, from Crumpsall.
"Pretty much anyone who's been in a band in Manchester has rehearsed at Sunshine at one time or another."
But now all tenants are being asked to leave, some with as little as a month's notice, by their new landlord.
Tom said he had hoped BooHoo might be interested in letting bands continue to use the space, at least in the short-term, while they developed future plans.
But there has been no offer of negotiation, he said, and he is expected to leave by October 26.
In a statement, Boohoo said: "It is with regret that we have had to ask all existing tenants to leave the building.
"We appreciate and are sorry that this will cause inconvenience to some, but following detailed safety inspections we have concerns that the building is not currently reaching adequate safety standards.
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"Everyone in Boohoo respects and appreciates the incredible reputation that Manchester has for music and but tenants safety must come first."
Tom says he is not aware of any safety issues in the building and described it as 'well maintained'.
Either way, it is the end of an era for a building that is part of Manchester's musical heritage.
Andy Fletcher runs Manchester Music Box, a studio space on the top floor that has seen a string of high-profile acts pass through including Haim, the Happy Mondays and I Am Kloot.
His business has a different lease and will be able to operate until the end of December before he relocates.
"[Marlsbro House] has been a musical melting pot for Manchester's talent for ten years," he said.
"From well-known established acts, to up and coming people.
"It's been ten years of really good times and it's sad that it's finally come to an end.
"But everything comes to and end - I'm trying to be positive and think about the next thing."
Tom is less upbeat and says losing Marlsbro House will be a major blow to the live music scene in Manchester at a time when it is already in crisis.
"The reason people come to live in Manchester is the live music culture," said Tom.
"It's a living, breathing scene.
"When you take the biggest rehearsal space out of that, especially in a pandemic when venues are closing, we might not have much of a scene to come back to."
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