Owner fundraising to save downtown Gastonia music venue

The owner of The Rooster, a venue in downtown Gastonia, is fundraising to save the business because, after 14 consecutive mortgage increases, he fell behind on his payments.

Michael Carpenter said that he created a fundraiser on the website Go Fund Me in hopes of raising $40,000 to prevent his venue from going into foreclosure.

He said that he received a loan from the Small Business Administration, a federal agency dedicated to helping small businesses, in 2022, but he received a mortgage with an adjustable interest rate.

Over the course of 14 months, his interest rate went up steadily, increasing his mortgage every month, and now, his mortgage has more than doubled from what it was when he opened his venue in October of 2022, Carpenter said.

"My goal is to keep the doors open, keep providing opportunities for artists, keep providing entertainment for the community, keep being a member of the downtown business community," he said. "I want to keep doing it, and so I'm fighting for my life basically."

Carpenter said that representatives from his bank told him if he can become current on his loan payments, the bank will renegotiate the loan.

"Every month my mortgage went up. It was a recipe for failure. Now that we've gotten to this point of stability, it built up so much that we're up against it, and the bank's demanding that we get current. They've agreed to renegotiate the loan if I get current.

"I got my first rate hike letter at the end of October 2022, so I was I was in operation for two weeks, and my interest rate raised for the first time," he said. "And then it kept raising every month for 14 months. So my first year of operation, not only was I trying to build the business up and get some stability, I was also dealing with, every month my mortgage went up, and it just, it was a recipe for failure."

He said the business is now stable, but he's behind on payments.

"This is a Hail Mary that we're throwing up," he added. "If we can pull this off and raise the money that we need, this won't happen again, because we're getting a better deal."

The Rooster holds concerts every weekend and an open mic night every Wednesday evening, the latter allowing comedians, musicians and other performance artists the opportunity to showcase their talent.

"We have full bands that will come and do a three-song set. We've got singer songwriters. We've got comedians that come in and do stand up. We've got people that come in and do drum solos," Carpenter said. "It's just whatever your gift is, you come in on Wednesday, you got an opportunity to get up there and do your thing."

In addition to the fundraiser on the website Go Fund Me, Carpenter is trying to raise funds by other means. And he has help. The Gastonia Baseball Club is donating a portion of its proceeds from Monday's game to the venue, and Carpenter is holding a benefit concert on Saturday to try to raise the funds.  He has until Monday.

At the concert, a variety of punk rock and metal bands will play, including The Coursing, the Queen City Rejects, Space Daddy and the Galactic Gogos and Fury 58. Tickets are available on The Rooster's website for $20.

So far, Carpenter's fundraising efforts have raised more than $24,000.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Owner fundraising to save downtown Gastonia music venue