Thomas Breen photo
Scores owner Peter Forchetti and attorney Anthony DiCrosta in court.
A housing court judge has given a Mill River strip club eight days to post $1.2 million in cash or collateral to avoid immediate eviction from its dilapidated clock factory home.
The new court-ordered May 15 deadline and appeal bond amount represent the latest turn in the months-long legal saga between the club and the Portland-based developers who plan to convert the former factory into 130 new affordable apartments and artist lofts.
Superior Court Judge John Cordani issued the order Tuesday morning, nearly two weeks after a state appeals court ordered him to decrease the initial appeal bond of $2.45 million that he had ordered the Scores strip club to pay in late March.
“This court had previously found that the carrying costs for the property in question were at least $69,000 per month,” Cordani wrote in the new order. “The court estimates the appeal period to be 18 months. The court has rounded down the appeal bond amount to $1.2 million.”
For months, Scores has succeeded in warding off an attempted eviction by Reed Community Partners, the developers behind the proposed Clock Shop Lofts project at the former clock factory at 133 Hamilton St. The strip club is the sole remaining tenant in the building.
The Scores strip club on Saint John Street.
In order to remain in place as they appeal Cordani’s initial eviction order from February, the strip club owners must post an appeal bond set by the housing court judge. That bond is based on how much the developers stand to lose if the club doesn’t budge over the course of the appeal, which both sides agree could last upwards of 18 months.
In his initial order, Cordani had set an appeal bond of $2.45 million based on $1.2 million in lost rent over 18 months as well as a $1.25 million mortgage note that the developers believe they might default on if the strip club stays put.
In court earlier this year, a representative from Reed Community Partners said that the development should cost around $38 million in total, with environmental remediation and construction funding coming from a variety of local, state, federal, and private sources. If the strip club remains in place for another 18 months, that representative said, the whole project has a 50 – 50 chance of falling apart.
