Scarfone selling downtown Greensboro music venue







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Rocco “Rocky” Scarfone


Last year, Rocco “Rocky” Scarfone filed his second lawsuit against the City of Greensboro over the February One Parking Deck at 110 S. Davie Street, alleging the controversial much-delayed construction project had “destroyed” his Cone Denim Entertainment Center music venue at 117 S. Elm by blocking access to the venue’s back door and loading deck.

Now that litigation is on hold and Scarfone is putting the venue up for auction. 

The listing for “Cone Denim Theatre” at www.bizbuysell.com describes the property as a “Live Music Venue w/ FF&E,” meaning furniture, fixtures, and equipment, and states the online auction begins on September 8 and concludes three days later, with the starting bid set at $400,000.

The two-story structure, built in 1949 and renovated in 2014, is listed as a 11,206 square foot storefront building on a .15-acre lot, “with exceptional value-add potential & a highly accessible, highly traveled location” offering “potential tax incentives.”

It also states the “Asset is equipped with tour bus & trailer parking w/ access to a lift, a shared easement for venue use the day of shows, and 900+ person capacity.”

Greater Greensboro Entertainment Group LLC v. City of Greensboro, the lawsuit filed Jan. 6, 2023, by Scarfone’s attorney Drew Brown, described that easement thusly;

“The City readily agreed to give the full easement knowing that every inch of it mattered,” but then, alleged the Complaint, violated that agreement by “building the parking garage literally and directly in the easement,” causing “significant damage and loss of good will among concert goers and Agents, National Recording Artists, Comedians, and other touring shows [and] destroying the business.”







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Parking deck under construction in 2023


It also stated that the “City has repeatedly given assurances that the project would be completed promptly, and yet 4 years and 8 months after the settlement was executed, it has not been completed and the City has missed deadline after deadline with no regard for the terms of the settlement agreement and the adverse effects their actions would have.”

In December 2017, Greensboro City Council approved spending $30 million on the February One-Westin Hotel parking deck on Davie Street. That construction was initially held up by Scarfone’s 2018 lawsuit over construction blocking back-alley access to the music venue. After Scarfone refused the city’s offer to buy the easement for $55,000, city council voted to take possession via eminent domain, but later settled for $650,000 plus $85,000 in legal fees. That settlement also granted Scarfone an easement from the back of Cone Denim via Market Street, and granted him space behind Cone Denim for a performer’s lounge.

But it denied him the right to build stairs to it. However, former City Attorney Tom Carruthers reportedly closed the deal without getting Scarfone’s signature on necessary supporting documents. A statement made to YES! Weekly last year by City Attorney Chuck Watts acknowledged that this oversight resulted in his predecessor’s dismissal. After months of negotiations, the city sold Scarfone air rights over the alley, denying him the first 15 feet of height over its pavement, but allowing him to build above that.

In 2017, the city announced that the planned $300 million deck was expected to be completed in two years, but due to the litigation and re-negotiation, construction did not begin until 2019. Five years later, the parking deck opened in June of this year at a final cost of $43 million.

Along with customers and employees of other downtown businesses, the new parking deck is intended to serve the long-planned and also much-delayed 180-room Westin Hotel that will be built beside and partially over it.







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Easement alley in 2023


In June, District 3 Representative Zack Matheny told the News & Record that “it’s about time” the parking deck was finished. Matheny also stated that representatives of Elm Street Hotel LLC, the development company behind the Westin project, have told him they intend to begin construction by December of this year. In 2021, those developers told Triad Business Journal that construction was expected to begin in 2023.

Managers of Elm Street Hotel LLC include Maryland developers Greg Dillon and Jack Cash, Daniel Robinson of Durham, and Greensboro businessman Randall Kaplan. 

As for the second lawsuit that Scarfone filed in January 2023, Guilford Superior Court records show that on Feb. 2 of this year, Case # 23CVS002115-400 was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice.







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Developer rendering of planned hotel atop parking deck


In North Carolina, voluntary dismissal without prejudice allows a plaintiff to temporarily halt a lawsuit against a local government for up to two years, during which time the plaintiff can amend their claim or move the case to another court before refiling it. This means that, theoretically, Scarfone can refile his lawsuit any time between now and February of 2026.

On Sunday, Scarfone attorney Drew Brown told YES! Weekly, “There is no activity currently in that litigation; what happens with the sale is a big factor in that.”

Asked if the sale meant his client was leaving downtown Greensboro, Brown laughed.

“Rocky will be around, he’s not going anywhere. The building is up for sale, and like any person selling a building, he wants to get as much money as possible. I’ll be happy to talk to you once it sells, but for right now, all I can say is it’s up for auction and we’ll see what happens. Hopefully, somebody will buy it, and I have no idea what they will use it for. There’s all kind of uses for it in downtown Greensboro.”

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