ST. LOUIS — The owners of a troubled St. Louis nightclub are on the hook for nearly $340,000 in rent and attorney fees.
On Wednesday, a judge ordered the owners of Reign to pay the landlord for its former spot on Washington Avenue.
Reign was evicted back in November after falling behind on rent. The judge's order would require the owners to pay double the monthly rent from Oct. 19, 2020, to Nov. 1, 2021, which amounted to $257,001.36. The order also called for the owners to pay $82.702.17 in attorney fees.
A month before Reign was evicted, the nightclub was ordered by the city to close for a year. They violated that order to close a week later, leading the city to look into other potential steps to take.
Reign had been facing problems because of a spike in violence in the area, with many neighbors and nearby businesses accusing the establishment of bringing violence and chaos to the Washington Avenue corridor.
Dana Kelly, the former owner of Reign, argued the crime trends were happening long before she opened her business.
"The danger didn't start with Reign, and just like a lot of other businesses that have been pushed from Washington Avenue, that are owned by people of color, the violence didn't start with them and it didn't go away once they got rid of them," Kelly said last September.
