This weekend has been labelled as “the last chance to save The Tote.”
Earlier this year, news broke that Melbourne live music institution The Tote Hotel had been put up for sale, just over 10 years after it was famously saved from the scrapheap by widespread community support.
“We signed up to save the Tote once, not expecting to have to do it twice!” co-owners Jon Perring and Sam Crupi said at the time. “It’s time for someone else to take it on with renewed enthusiasm and vision now COVID is behind us. We feel the timing (sic) right.”
And just like a decade before, the community stepped up to do its bit. A crowdfunding campaign was started on Pozible to buy the Tote and save the venerated venue – at the time of writing, the campaign has raised $3,045,10, overtaking its target of $3,000 with eight hours to spare.
After profusely thanking fans of the Tote for their help, the owners provided more information about where things stand on social media, revealing that the current asking price sits at $6.65m, over double what the crowdfunding campaign raised.
“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,” they explained. “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.”
As the owners noted, the huge community support for the campaign raised “the question of whether an independent foundation should be established to purchase the freehold to secure The Tote freehold for the future.”
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“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,” they added.
“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 …..”
You can still contribute to the Pozible campaign for eight more hours here.
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