FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 6, 2013 - LaCrosse, WI - Historic Concert Venue The Warehouse has set the standard for quality live music for 22 years, all while maintaining an all ages, smoke-free, and alcohol-free environment. Unbelievably, despite establishing a legacy of showcasing the best in local and national new talent, The Warehouse's future is precariously close to being destroyed because their strict policy of not making local bands pay (see below) has caused a great reduction in the income of the venue, as opposed to a normal alcohol-selling, band-bilking venue. Some of the bills have snowballed over the past half a decade, as property taxes have multiplied and the mortgage has fallen behind, and the venue now faces foreclosure on two fronts. Two months ago the bank stated that The Warehouse would have to be sold to developers and would most likely end up as residential units and the County is considering foreclosure because of the back taxes.
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The remarkable team at The Warehouse has brought together a campaign to save The Warehouse, utilizing IndieGoGo to raise funds, and offering fans phenomenal perks for contributing!
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The IndieGoGo Warehouse Rescue Campaign was put in place to throw a wrench into that process, but the deadline to reach the amount needed is August 22. The goal is to reach enough funds to pay off the back property taxes, pay a small portion of the mortgage to bring down the mortgage payments, to pay off the existing backed up bills from the City (water/sewer/business property taxes), pay off other backed up bills from trash pick up, BMI, phone, window repair, other building maintenance, and get out from under the pressing financial issues. At that point, if the goal is met, Warehouse intends to go through the steps to become a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization (since their accountant has always insisted they are "anti-profit" by default), allowing much more flexibility in funding, and hopefully be able to utilize the building to the benefit of the community even further by bringing in national speakers to talk to kids about the music business, allow media majors to set up video shoots for local bands in a real world environment, allow local music stores to set up clinics in a real world live performance environment, and allow the main room to be used for young bands "first rehearsal on stage" so that they are not hitting the stage cold on their first gig, etc.; all things that are not currently financially feasible because of the time involved.
