“Don’t even think about changing the locks” — landlord

Another one bites the dust.

Board Paradise — a snowboarding gear and apparel retailer in Carytown — is locked and there is a sign out front possibly warning the store’s owners not to have the locks changed. Read more

Will turn of calendar signal new page for Richmond area?

It’s a bit too early to call the bottom.

But as a new fiscal year begins, “green shoots” might be sprouting through the cracks. The pace of large-scale layoffs has slowed. In May, there were 1,066 mass layoffs in the region. None were announced in June or so far in July. And most of the remaining companies seem stronger – at least profitable – than those that went belly-up in the past 12 months (Circuit City, LandAmerica and Qimonda).

It’s also possible those green shoots are a mirage. More than 50,000 in the region are unemployed, according to May data from the Department of Labor. That is enough to fill the Diamond more than four times over. Read more

Now playing at Toad’s Place: The fat lady

It’s official: The music will not play again at Toad’s Place. At least not at a venue with that name, and not anytime soon.

On Monday, Toad’s Place of Richmond LLC filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.  The club closed in March when the landlord changed the locks. At that time, the venue fell four or five months behind on its $40,000 rent. (Click here to read about how the business got into trouble.) Read more

The lonesome Toad’s Place blues

Like the main character in a country music song, Toad’s Place just got the boot from its landlord. It’s not clear exactly how much back rent the Shockoe Slip venue owes, but it typically takes at least three or four months of missed rent before a commercial property owner evicts a tenant. Sources familiar with the situation said they heard the business was late on its roughly $40,000 monthly rent payment ($15 per square foot) as long ago as November. Read more