Virus Diary: Lafayette’s Nissi’s entertainment center closes

LAFAYETTE — Lafayette’s Nissi’s Coffee House Inc., which does business as Nissi’s Entertainment Venue & Event Center, planned to relocate after lease terms changed. But, as with other Colorado event centers, the COVID-19 pandemic has instead halted all operations.

The restaurant and live event venue closed its doors — laying off 17 employees — on March 13 as Gov. Jared Polis ordered the cancellation of events of 250 people or more. 

Prior to federal, state and city responses to the coronavirus outbreak, the company decided not to renew its lease, which ends in May. The call was made after the owner, Marc Gitlin, couldn’t come to a renewal agreement on the 2675 Northpark Drive site with Nissi’s landlord. According to Gitlin, rent could increase 25%.

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The 11,951-square-foot building, where Nissi’s occupies the ground floor, was acquired by Kelby and Beth Zorgdrager under the entity AOA Bridgetown LLC in 2017 for $2.05 million, as previously reported by BizWest. Beth explained that Nissi’s had a gross rent lease that carried over from the previous owners. The Zorgdragers said that they wanted to reformat to a triple net lease, where the tenant would absorb costs such as building insurance, real estate taxes and maintenance.

“What had happened was the price of our taxes went up,” Beth said. “So taxes used to be $21,000 on that building in 2016, which for a gross rent structure that’s fine. But the taxes have gone up to $53,000 this year. In four years the taxes have more than doubled.”

The building owners offered Gitlin a reduction in the base rent, but they were not able to make the change to a triple net structure. 

Gitlin, who’s owned Nissi’s 11 years out of its 15-year-run, said that despite putting $100,000 into renovations, AOA wouldn’t budge. Right before closing Nissi’s doors due to the pandemic, Gitlin was considering a tentative agreement to move to another Lafayette location.

“I was going to finish off the last few months of my lease,” Gitlin said. “You know, I booked all my best bands, I had a few events already booked, and then this hit. Totally devastated all my plans.”

Gitlin announced on April 14 on Nissi’s website, Facebook page and local community pages that it is indefinitely but temporarily closed. He added that the online community outpouring demonstrates the value of the entertainment venue. The Facebook post alone has more than 100 comments from disappointed patrons. 

With the cancellation of events and shuttering restaurant operations, Gitlin predicts a loss of $220,000 in gross revenue between the time of closure and through May. Several events stretching to the fall are now cancelled.

Expiration of the lease has a silver lining. While Nissi’s remains closed during the pandemic response, Gitlin won’t have lease payments after May, he said. It’s unclear when — or where — Nissi’s will reopen.

“So now, I’m just kind of stuck in this kind of limbo seeing where this all plays out,” Gitlin said.

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