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It’s the story that just won’t die…
One of the comments section dudes spent the better part of a week needling me for writing so frequently about Jardine’s. He had a point. On the other hand, when Kansas City’s top jazz club goes down ugly (not to mention weird), who am I to ignore it?
Especially given that for better and for worse, I’m in the unique position of having access to most of the players in this jazz soap. Lucky me.
Besides, what’s not to like about the local alt weekly and Fox news getting taken for a ride on the bogus sale story?
Meanwhile back at the mainstream news ranch, the Kansas City Star is more-or-less sitting on its hands after being embarrassed by its music writer getting outted by Jardine’s owner for accepting free brewskies.
Star copy editor / jazz dude Joe Klopus did manage to choke out the following non-news tidbit last week:
"Jardine’s update. Some recent online reports that former jazz venue Jardine’s has a new owner have been hasty, incorrect and perhaps wishful. But at press time for this section, a deal is reportedly in the pipeline."
Fat chance! Loosely translated, what Klopus is telling readers is he has no idea what’s going at Jardine’s. You can’t win if you don’t play, and clearly Joe Klo is not a playa.
So what is going on now at Jardine’s? A buncha bizarre stuff, but all behind the scenes.
Let’s sort it out for Joe and everyone who bought the Fox 4 / Pitch yarn that a pair of local married dudes bought it.
Never happened.
Multiple sources have confirmed that Jardine’s remains for sale with at least two separate ownership groups having expressed an interest in buying the club. One such group is headed by former Sprint exec Paul Wilson, who has produced documents subsequent to the misreported "sale" evidencing that the club is still being offered for sale by owner Beena Raja.
"At this point we’re no less interested in buying Jardine’s than we ever were," Wilson says. "We’ve got an investor and we’re waiting for the next shoe to drop."
As for the ownership issue, "I think Beena absolutely owns it," Wilson says. "I have an email from her stating that she owns it, sent the day after the Pitch story said that the two guys bought it. And I got an email from her lawyer with a contract 10 hours after Channel 4 had the supposed new owners on television saying they’d bought it."
Wilson says he’s been told Jardine’s is two to four months behind on rent and the club has remained dark since Thanksgiving, other than a handful of nights, the last being New Year’s Eve. The club’s January concert calendar also remains blank.
Next up?
"Hurry up and wait, I guess," Wilson says. "I think there’ll be another 30 days of topsy-turvy before things sort out. So we’re just getting our ducks in a row to make sure we’re the first in line when that happens."
Colliers senior property manager Scott Padon did not return calls for this column.
And the beat goes on…
Move on
Come on Herne. This story has gotten old and I don’t think people care any longer about this subject. Why don’t you find a fresh idea?
Maybe give us some reporting on the murder in your old hood in Lions Gate. This would be much more interesting.
“NIGHTS OF OUR LIVES”
No this is not old, tell us more more more…
Now wrting a Hollywood script (Soap Opera)based on this.
Need all the info we can get.
Thinking about calling it “Nights of our Lives”…
It has it all…. love…. booze…. drugs… sex…. fights out back….. open?… closed?…. buyers… sellers…..
What will happen next???……. people will be tuning in to find out.
And of course we will mail Hearne his cut of all the money we make… but gLazer gets NONE!!! NO SOUP FOR HIM!!!
You gotta love the fact…
That the Kansas City Star reporter doesn’t have a clue and Hearne has the story. Hearne has to be loving that. A little payback to the old and tired wornout Star. Too bad for them. I can get more news scanning AOL and Huffington in one minute than I can reading the Star which is where they get there stories anyway. How boring could it be working for that paper these days?
Dale..
The only story there is just sad. Suicide-murder. End of story.
WHAT WE REALLY WANT IS….
….more from mermaid…. we are ready when you are….
and if anybody copies the idea.. it just proves you are a genius and beautiful too
He’s Back
I knew you couldn’t stay away jojo+harley+sam.
Still an interesting sexy lowbrow story particularly with the homos getting taken for a ride OR maybe that was part of the plan. If Dominick Dunne were still alive and living in a trailer park in Odessa, he’d be all over this.
smartman, what harleyjojosam doesn’t get…
Is he has the literary and stylistic equivalent of a fingerprint! You can dye your hair or change your name but we still have Harley to kick around. Instead of kicking him around, though, we are just pointing him out.
guys…its not me…
i made a few comments on the mu/ku deal..i’m a die hard mu guy and I love getting ku fans
all upset with some comments. but none of these on this story are me.
I am just having a boring time reading this stuff. Hearne needs some new blood.
Especially in sports where greg is doing well.
Hope wilson gets jardines. I’m not a fan of jazz but i do hope that he gets to buy the
place. When people come to town they need a place to go see music and wilson probably
has the business background to make it stay open.
well thanks, harley
Answer your email and we’ll do lunch.
Dealing with Swami’s
This was a scam sale all the way. This old hag is just like the motel owners all across the USA. Not an honorable soul among ’em.
why give beena anything
Why buy Jardine’s now when Beena is well on her way to going out of business organically? If you really want a Jazz club just wait a month or two when the landlord boots her and take the space. Call it Paul’s or something. Paying Beena extra for the privelege of continuity when she’s already wrecked the club’s image doesn’t seem like a good idea.
all good points, expat
…but we do have some other concerns.
Preservation of the name, there are ownership issues there that need to be addressed.
Contents and fixtures, no need to duplicate that if you dont have to.
Licenses that are really hard to obtain when starting fresh that are easier when you do a transfer.
… and then, there’s people involved we think need to be made whole one some things.
Karma pays you both ways, I’m a proponent of staying on the positive side of that quotient.
Still, you make a valid point.
on buying a business
wilson…you want to move fast…the longer the biz is down the harder to get back up. All the bad pr can hurt
you but if you start out with a big fundraiser that gets people thinking that the new owners are better people.
I gave glaze a great idea…run a fundraiser at his comedy club …non stop comedy…find out the
world record…do it on a monday/tuesday/wednesday…raise money for drug rehab or to help that
charity your brother liked.
I just finished the holiday season with some huge fundraisers…and i can tell you ntohing…absolutely nothing
is a better feelign than helping someone.
And with glazes ability to generate pr…his connections in la and across the nation..his ability to generate
buzz…it would be huge. Come on glaze…do it…get dare broadcasting live…100 hours of comedy..
heck put smartman on stage..he’s a funny guy…he’s gotta be good for 2 hours of comedy because the stuff
he usually writes is hilarious.
Also..wilson ..when i sold out I had a bulk sale agreement…that meant all the old bills i was still respnsbilbe
for…don’t know if that applies to bars…but if jardines sold out they would probably have to pay the old
emplyees…or as you said..you might have to pay them to get the good will for the place back.
But you need to move fast so that people don’t find alternatives and forget about the place.
With hearnes site you can probably get the word out but you don’t want to keep it dark too long.
shoot me an email, Harley…
I dont want to cover a lot of it in public, but our intent in based along the lines of what you are saying, but on an ongoing basis. We have a lot of interest in water issues in Mawali as well as needs in our own inner city. The second point of our mission statement is to build the business to a point it would throw off cash that could be used for humanitarian issues. Thats the SECOND point, not towards the end, after “Make a shit load of cash”, or “Buy my BOAT”.
You statement on payables at the close of a sale is correct, some people, on the other hand, dont treat it that way. And, when you have limited vendors, you need to clean them up too.
Thee down time… yeah, big issue. BIG issue. It makes it more difficult daily. But like I said, drop me an email, you know how to find me, I’ll tell you the behind the scenes issues that keep me up at night.