Kadi Ennis of Hot Springs is among the brides left stranded because Noah's Event Center is shutting down after this weekend.
She had scheduled a May 16 wedding at the west Little Rock site.
"She's stressed," her mother, Tina Ennis, said Friday. "She's having to restart everything. Everything was set up for that venue. It's very limited. We're three months out. It's very difficult to find anyone with availability at this point."
Ennis said the family members learned of the closing Thursday night and were unable to reach anyone there by phone. They drove to the event center on Rahling Circle on Friday.
"There was nobody there," she said. "We still haven't heard a word from them. Nothing."
Word of the closing came after a federal bankruptcy judge on Thursday ordered the national chain that operates the center to shut down operations within two weeks, according to Kenneth Cannon, an attorney representing Noah's in the bankruptcy proceedings in U.S. bankruptcy court in Utah.
Other event centers were trying to help couples rearrange their wedding locations, including The Grandeur House in Little Rock, which said in a Facebook post that it was "finding replacement dates for several brides already this morning, and will have immediate tours available for you this weekend."
The Grandeur House owner, Natalie Scott, said in an email that she was confident that couples left stranded by the closing will find accommodations.
"Central Arkansas has an amazing community of wedding vendors ... that are rallying together to help the brides affected in every possible way," she said. "Myself and many other venue owners will be working overtime this weekend, trying to accommodate the brides that are currently scrambling to secure a location, and turn their wedding experience around."
Ennis and her fiance, Andrew Steck, likely won't see a return of the cash they paid in advance to reserve the venue, Cannon said.
"Technically, based on our legal analysis, they are not really refunds," he said. "We sort of informally always called them that. They are repayment obligations under the contracts. They were monies held as deposits. The company never could have operated if that was the case.
"So their claims against the company and their likelihood of repayment is low. Very low. I know that because I am not getting paid, either."
Weddings were not the only events disrupted. The nonprofit Arkansas Coalition Against Sexual Assault scheduled its first major fundraiser for May 2 at the venue and, like others, had paid in advance rent of more than $4,000.
"For us to lose $4,000 is a pretty big deal," said Monie Johnson, the organization's executive director, adding that it came from a small pool of unrestricted money and was an amount that could pay for up to four weeks of counseling for a sexual-assault victim.
She, too, is looking for an alternative site for the fundraiser.
Noah's is a national chain based in Utah that once boasted more 40 event centers in more than 20 states. The company filed for bankruptcy protection last year, seeking to reorganize and continue to operate, and, according to online news reports, had closed some but not all of its sites in the months after the court filing.
Cannon said a restructuring officer appointed by the court worked to turn things around for the company, renegotiating leases and lowering operating costs. But the chain's biggest time of the year begins in January and revenue didn't materialize, in part because of bad publicity, he said.
That publicity stems, in part, from a lawsuit filed by investors in a Carmel, Ind., site for a new Noah's center that didn't materialize. A retiree group's $6.2 million is gone with the retirees claiming they were defrauded in a complex scheme they alleged was a "rob Peter to pay Paul" business model.
"Older investment venues paid steady returns to investors, not on the basis of successful management and profitability, as represented by defendants, but through cash generated by new investments or cash generated from other facilities,'' the plaintiffs said in their lawsuit.
An attorney for Noah's has denied the allegations.
A Saturday wedding rental of the Little Rock venue cost almost $5,000, at minimum, for the 10,662-square-foot facility. The price includes a ceremony room, two dressing suites, cocktail area and a reception room for up to 250 guests, according to its website.
Business on 02/08/2020