Anna Ragghianti, owner of the now shuttered Bellissima, announced on Facebook Wednesday her nightclub of three years has closed.
Ragghianti told Project Q in November, she was going to sell the bar because she wanted “to move on, travel and work on film projects she’s otherwise had to take a pass on.”
Today, Ragghianti informed her most loyal followers that she was unable to sell Bellissima due to issues with securing a lease for a potential purchaser.
“We were excited to have a contract with a new owner who planned to take rains as soon as possible, keeping it as Bellissima,” Ragghianti said in the Facebook post. “Unfortunately, Halpern Enterprises has informed us that they will not sign a lease with the new owner.”
Halpern Enterprises is Amsterdam Walk’s developer and Bellissima’s landlord.
“Bellissima is now closed and will not re-open at the Amsterdam location,” Ragghianti said. “I will be considering all options moving forward and will post any updates on this Bellisssima Facebook Fan page.”
Developing…
9 Responses
Word on the street is Atlanta’s favorite pie shoppe, QB Crusher’s, plans to make an offer on the location with ambitions to convert it to a pie shop.
Oh boy a shoppe!
The few times I went there it was DEAD. For that matter, so is Amsterdam every time I go. I guess Friday/Saturday nights aren’t their busy times?
Loca Luna dominates all the parking in this place, making it harder for the other places to do well at night.
Atlanta is such a transient city that businesses up and close all the time whether they’re doing good business or not. People just move in and out of Atlanta like a revolving door, making it hard to sustain a consistent line-up of businesses.
That’s very sad news. It’s wasn’t my top bar choice, but I had a lot of friends who liked going there. Anna is awesome and I hope she’s able to re-open somewhere else.
David – Anna doesn’t want to re-open. She wanted out!
I wonder what the deal was with Halpern Enterprises…hmmm sounds fishy to me, as does all of these landlord/rent issues lately with gay establishments…
If the new buyer had credit that didn’t meet up to Halpern’s standards I could see then disallowing the transaction. Who wants to get stuck with a non paying tenant, gay or not?
Jimmy – the buyers had excellent credit and were planning to re-open quickly as Bellissima. Halpern never sat down with the new owners. Their broker was informed by Halpern that they had decided a month prior not to move forward with me or a buyer, stating that it was because of parking issues….. stating that they will not be leasing the space to any bar/restaurant. Unfortunately, they lead me to believe differently. Myself and my new partner/investor were also negotiating a lease with a Halpern in case a sale did not go through.
AJ – My intentions were to sell or take on a partner/investor.
Jalson & Sub-urbanist – interesting observations.
David – Thank you 🙂