Lucky's Garage has officially shut its doors. The following is a statement issued by Lucky's Garage today (Tuesday, February 5). See link to related story below statement.
After 18 months in business, it was with heavy hearts that the owners and investors of Lucky’s Garage moved to close the doors of the nightclub on Sunday, January 20. Though rumors have circulated about the closure, the simple truth is that income at Lucky’s Garage fell short of expenses and the owners could no longer operate the business at a loss.
Lucky’s Garage had more than its fair share of bad luck. The problems started before the club even opened for business, in the summer of 2006. Construction costs for the 8,000 square foot club ended up being more than 40% higher than projected. Then, in a shocking turn of events, the City of Nashville reversed a prior decision to allow the club to open without a sprinkler system just 30 days before the club was to open in early July. This added nearly $90,000 in construction costs and delayed the opening of the club by two months, while ensuring that Lucky’s would miss out on the busy summer months.
The additional costs and delays depleted all of Lucky’s cash reserves and the club opened with no operating capital. Lucky’s investors immediately set out to raise the additional capital needed to run the business and over the next year successfully procured investment dollars to keep the business running, while working diligently to build the business.
At first business was slow, but in early 2007 business improved dramatically and Lucky’s saw double-digit monthly increases throughout much of the year. Even with an improving financial picture, the cost to build and run the business proved too great to overcome in the end. After a year of intensive fundraising it was determined that additional capital injections would be needed for another 12 to 24 months. This was beyond the ability of Lucky’s investors to procure. The decision was made to close the club.
It was with high hopes and big dreams that Lucky’s opened its doors in August 2006. We are all very proud of what we accomplished and grateful for the many good times we have shared with our loyal friends and patrons inside the walls of Lucky’s Garage. We offer our sincere thanks to Nashville’s GLBT community and its friends for their support of Lucky’s Garage, and hope that investment in creating a vibrant GLBT business community in Nashville will continue in earnest.