Club owner plans lawsuit against condo residents

Ambrish Piare, owner of the nightclub Ivory Lounge, says he’s worked for two years to address a series of noise complaints lobbed at him by downtown condo residents, but the grievances have continued to pile up.

Now, Piare is trying a new tactic to stop the complaints coming from the people living above his business: He’s filing a lawsuit.

Last week, the Plaza at Five Points Condominium Association and five individual condo residents received a letter, which notified them that Piare intended to bring legal action against them. The letter, written by attorney Andrea Mogensen, says Piare intends to make a number of claims against the condo residents, including slander, defamation and tortious interference with a business relationship.

Piare said he decided to file the lawsuit because he now believes the residents care about getting the nightclub shut down, not about getting it to operate within the confines of the city’s noise ordinance.

“This is the right thing to do to make clear to everyone that it’s not right to drive your personal agenda without taking into account that you are hurting a business and its employees,” Piare said. “That’s a form of harassment.”

The letter sent to the residents lists a series of actions Piare took to try to combat the complaints, including paying $25,000 for an acoustic consultant to make recommendations on how to mute the noise. Piare said that, despite constant complaints directed at Ivory Lounge, the establishment has only received one formal citation for violating the noise ordinance in the past two years.

Ron Rayevich, president of the Plaza at Five Points Condo Association, declined to comment on possible pending litigation.

Piare believes lasting damage has already been done to his business, but he hopes this lawsuit will send a message to the condo owners and discourage what he considers to be frivolous complaints going forward.

“There’s nothing to win — all parties have already lost by getting to this point,” Piare said. “I don’t feel responsible whatsoever for us getting to this point; I have tried for two years to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. I have been fighting ghosts.”

Contact David Conway at [email protected].