A New York hedge fund supervisor linked to the SFX chapter has been quietly co-managing Avant Gardner and the quickly closed Brooklyn Mirage nightclub since late final 12 months and main unsuccessful efforts attempting to get it reopened, Billboard has realized.
Andrew Axelrod’s Axar Capital has been a secured creditor of Avant Gardner — the Brooklyn nightclub firm that books and manages the Brooklyn Mirage, Kings Corridor and the Nice Corridor — since late 2023, sources near the corporate have confirmed.
A 12 months prior, former Avant Gardner CEO Billy Bildstein had negotiated the purchase of the Electrical Zoo competition from Axelrod, whose Axar Capital was the senior creditor to media mogul Bob Sillerman’s one-time EDM conglomerate SFX — of which Electrical Zoo’s guardian firm, Made Occasions, was a component. When SFX went bankrupt in 2015, Axar Capital led a takeover of the corporate, rebranding it LiveStyle and hiring music govt Randy Phillips to steer a selloff of its property, which included U.S. promoters like Disco Donnie Presents and Life in Colour; Europe’s ID&T, the Dutch promoter behind Tomorrowland; and EDM tech startups like Denver-based digital music platform Beatport. The final asset to promote, in 2022, was Made Occasions. Axelrod needed $15 million for the corporate and structured the deal in order that Avant Gardner may pay Axar Capital utilizing the proceeds from the Electrical Zoo competition.
Avant Gardner efficiently ran the Electrical Zoo competition in 2022 however was sidelined by multiple fiascos the next 12 months together with allow denials, gate crashers, the cancellation of the competition’s opening day and accusations of overselling the closing day by 7,000 followers. As a result of disastrous 2023 run, Avant Gardner has faced multiple lawsuits from each followers and unpaid distributors and was condemned by a one-time ally, New York Mayor Eric Adams, who had beforehand supported the favored Brooklyn Mirage and sided with Bildstein throughout his high-profile battle with the State Liquor Authority.
Sources inform Billboard that the demise of the competition, and Avant Gardner’s incapacity to pay Axar the reported $15 million price ticket for Electrical Zoo, are what led to Axar changing into a senior creditor to Avant Gardner. Phrases of the Electrical Zoo sale will not be public, however a previous agreement between Axar and publicly traded streaming service LiveOne, which bought Chicago’s Spring Awakening competition — one other SFX asset — reveals how Axelrod favored to construction a few of these offers.
In that settlement, Axelrod offered Spring Awakening to LiveOne for $2.5 million in convertible loans that Axelrod may flip into fairness. The deal allowed LiveOne to take over the competition instantly and pay Axelrod again over two years. There was even an possibility for Axelrod to simply accept LiveOne inventory as an alternative of money if shares of the corporate hit sure value targets, however they by no means did. A month after the deal closed, COVID-19 hit, and Spring Awakening 2020 was canceled. After LiveOne misplaced $3.5 million on the 2021 occasion, Axelrod agreed to simply accept $2.4 million value of LiveOne inventory. However 5 months later, the worth of LiveOne’s inventory had fallen 70%, dropping the worth of Axelrod’s LiveOne shares to roughly $700,000.
Avant Gardner is a personal firm, so it’s unclear how the settlement with Axar was structured. Sources inform Billboard that Axelrod made further investments into the Brooklyn Mirage, which just lately underwent intensive renovations and is now making an attempt to navigate New York’s Division of Buildings to safe a allow to open.
On Could 22, Avant Gardner parted ways with Josh Wyatt, a hospitality govt Axelrod had employed to run the corporate and information it by means of renovations that noticed the membership shut for building. The Brooklyn Mirage was speculated to open Could 1 with a live performance by Sara Landry, however constructing inspectors declined to grant the power a allow to open. A month and a half later, the membership has been compelled to cancel and relocate greater than a dozen reveals as its allow issues persist.
Gary Richards, a promoter, touring artist and former CEO of Livestyle for Axar Capital, is now operating Avant Gardner and managing day-to-day operations. Billboard reached out to Richards and Axar however was informed that neither deliberate to remark for this story.