The landlord of Paramour, the San Antonio rooftop bar known for its drag brunches and River Walk views, is pressuring it to pay up or move out, legal filings show.
CDC Enterprises L.P., the owner of downtown’s Phipps Building, early this month sued the entity that does business as Paramour in Bexar County District Court, alleging it owes $260,000 in rent, fees and interest. Days later, CDC filed with the county’s Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace to evict the club from the Phipps, according to an Express-News report.
In its District Court suit, Fort Worth-based CDC argues that Paramour operator Holy Spirit LLC failed to pay the club’s $46,000 monthly rent from September through January. CDC sent three default notices before ordering the business to move out of the Phipps by Dec. 21, the documents shows.
Holy Spirits owner Martin Phipps — the San Antonio attorney who represented Bexar County in its lawsuit against opioid manufacturers — was unavailable for comment at press time. The attorney sold the Phipps building to CDC in late 2022 for $11 million, according to a contract included as an exhibit with the lawsuit.
While Phipps didn’t respond to the Current‘s inquiry about the dispute, he told the Express-News CDC’s suit is frivolous. Both Paramour and Colette, a restaurant the attorney opened next to the club, performed well last year and are off to a “great start” in 2024, he added.
“Currently, the plaintiff owes Holy Spirits at least $498,383.35 and is in breach of contract and fiduciary responsibility due to their nonpayment of required fees like basic maintenance and repair,” Phipps said in a statement he emailed the daily.
CDC partner Daren Connel told the Current he was too busy to comment on the lawsuit. However, in a statement emailed to the Express-News, he characterized the fight with Paramour as a “minor dispute.”
“Mr. Phipps is an old friend,” Connel told the newspaper via email. “I’m confident that he wants this resolved as much as we do.”
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This article appears in Jan 10-23, 2024.
