According to Parliament House owner Don Granatstein, the iconic gay bar is no longer under the control of a receivership.
A judge put P-House under receiver control Sept. 1, as a result of courtroom wrangling and a foreclosure lawsuit over an unpaid debt. Lender Southwest Guaranty, Ltd. requested the intervention, and the receiver has been controlling the finances and operations of the business until Dec. 21, when Granatstein said the receivership was removed.
Court documents were not yet available to the public at press time.
Granatstein said the business is now working with Compass Bank, because Southwest has lost its assets to Compass.
“The receivership wasn’t needed,” Granatstein said. “Southwest Guarantee was going out of business, they’re gone.”
As of Dec. 21, Southwest’s website was still online and their offices appeared to be operational, but no one from Southwest returned calls for comment and clarification.
In the meantime, Granatstein said he’s pleased with the new deal with Compass, because it “reduced our debt by a ton, saved millions of dollars,” but acknowledged that the receivership hurt his business.
“Rumors spread all over and one of our competitors was telling everyone we were going out of business. It caused damage,” he said. “Is it terrible damage? No.”
He said he will reverse one decision made by the receiver—the firing of general manager Bill Lape, who had held his position at Parliament House for more than three decades.
“It was a terrible blow to everybody,” Granatstein said. “We’ll be welcoming Bill back.”
Now, Granatstein said he can move forward with plans that were “just sitting there” while under the receiver.
We’ve got a renovation plan for the Parliament House, a major renovation for both the club and the hotel and we’re all funded on it,” he said. “We’ve made a deal with the investors from next door, The Gardens, to start building all the amenities so we’re going to build The Parliament Club, basically a country club for the gay community.”
