The owners of The Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar in Naarm/Melbourne have hit the target in their crowdfunding campaign to buy the Tote Hotel, raising more than $3million in pledged community donations.
When their Pozible campaign, which launched March 8, ended at 11:59pm last night (May 6), it stood at exactly $3,097,749. In a joint statement shared on social media, The Last Chance’s co-owners Shane Hilton and Leanne Chance said: “Well, fuck… How the fuck do we express what we’re feeling at the moment? I don’t think we can. We just want to say thank you. To all of you. Every single one of you. You have done this.
“This has been a community gathering to make sure that a live music venue can live forever. A place where we can create, be who we are and express ourselves through art & music. We can’t thank all of you enough. Whether you’ve contributed emotionally, with your time, financially, with your words or with absolutely any support in any form it’s been you who has made this possible. It’s mind blowing what you have all done.”
The current owners of The Tote, Jon Perring and Sam Crupi, congratulated Hilton and Chance in a statement of their own yesterday, calling the campaign’s success “a stunning result for the community” that “shows the enormous community concern and support for securing The Tote’s future as a live music venue [in] perpetuity”.
The statement, however, has been met with criticism – as comments on Instagram and Facebook show – in its assertion that the deal for the Tote has yet to be sealed and that the venue is still for sale. Perring and Crupi’s statement says that there is a “shortfall” between the funds raised, through the Pozible campaign and the Last Chance’s own equity, and the Tote’s current asking price – which according to Perring and Crupi “is possibly even conservative by some measures”.
Though the Tote will continue discussions “in good faith” with the Last Chance, “the Tote remains for sale until an agreement can be reached”, the statement says.
Perring and Crupi’s statement reads: “The current asking price is $6.65m and is based on the land value. This is backed by a recent independent valuation by a respected and qualified valuer. The asking price allows for the mortgage, all liabilities and the current owners to be paid out fairly.
“As a way of background, the Tote has refinanced several times to get it through the pandemic, the cost of which is factored into this price. It wouldn’t be here today if these steps hadn’t been taken to get the Tote through this crisis. Hence, the reserve price was set to be fair but also realistic. The price is possibly even conservative by some measures.”
Perring and Crupi added: “As there is a shortfall between the community pledges, the Last Chance equity and the sale price, governments and possibly private philanthropy would need to come on board to bridge the current gap. The other alternative is to go back to the music community again.
“A properly structured foundation would need to be set up for this to work and a stakeholder discussion needs to occur for this to happen successfully. The Tote is open to such a discussion and is also keen to make this sale occur. In the meantime, by necessity, The Tote remains for sale until an agreement can be reached. Discussions will continue in good faith with Last Chance so stay tuned.”
In quotes published by The Age, Hilton responded to the Tote’s statement by noting that he and Chance aim to “deal with whatever else arises” during negotiations for the venue’s sale. He added: “[The crowdfunding campaign’s success is] an amazing example of what this community does, it really is. I can’t express the admiration I have for everyone out there, it’s blown my mind. We’ll sit down with Jon and Sam and try and get the sale through.”
Hilton went on to say he’s “certain” he and Chance will emerge victorious. “We set ourselves goals,” he said, “and we worked really hard to achieve them. When you work hard, things happen, and I’m 100 per cent confident we’ll be [the Tote’s] new custodians.”
Hilton and Chance made their official bid to buy The Tote midway through April, roughly a month and a half after the venue was put up for sale. Speaking to NME at the time, Hilton argued that his and Chance’s devotion to live music made them good candidates to take over the Tote: “[We’ve established] a really good reputation in the live music industry for giving it everything we’ve got.”
Hilton was adamant that he and Chance would not work with an investor to buy the Tote. “Investors usually invest to make money,” he said, “and we’re not doing this to make money. We want to protect the Tote forever, and we can’t do that if in 10 years, someone walks through the door and says, ‘Alright, I need a return on the investment I’ve made.’
“The building itself shouldn’t be there to get us paid a dividend, it should be paying dividends to the community. And it does that by being a creative space where people can be themselves and make a lot of noise doing it.”