By Phindile Chauke

There may soon be no more partying at The Palms because its owner has allegedly not paid rent and his landlord has asked a court to help kick him out.

Late last month, The Palms' landlord filed papers in the Joburg High Court asking for the lease to be cancelled because the top Sandton nightspot's owner, Gregory Ioannou, had allegedly failed to pay rent for eight months.

But Ioannou says he will fight the action and remains ?open for business?.

"We're open as usual. I have instructed my attorney to oppose the action and notice to this effect has already been served."

The Palms, frequented by some of Joburg's best-known celebrities, like DJs Fresh and Sbu and models like Babalwa Mneno, opened early last year after costing R8 million to decorate.

This is not the first time The Palms has faced legal action. The Joburg council and Sandton residents hauled it to court to stop it trading illegally as a nightclub something Ioannou flatly denies.

At the centre of The Palms? latest legal woes is a claim by the landlord, Platinum Mile Investments 229, that Ioannou has not paid his monthly rent of more than R88 000 for eight months.

And when he gave his landlord two cheques of about R140 000 each, they bounced, say court papers.

Now the company that owns the Aston Martin building on the corner of Sandton's Rivonia Road and Linden Street has asked the court to cancel The Palms' lease agreement and issue an eviction order.

The landlord has also asked that The Palms be ordered to pay rent arrears plus 13.5% interest as well as its legal costs.

It said it tried to evict The Palms in March but the nightspot had not budged.

Ioannou had until Thursday to tell his landlord whether he intended to fight in court and his attorney, Alexander Flionis, confirmed his client was going to defend the application.

Last year, the Joburg council took Ioannou and his landlord to court to force him to stop operating a nightclub. His landlord did not contest the council?s application.

The Palms, which operates as a restaurant by day, was, said the council, in contravention of Sandton's town planning regulations.

But in his responding affidavit, Ioannou denied that he ran a nightclub and said the establishment's R100 cover charge was for a buffet meal.

Council legal official James Rammala inspected The Palms and found disco lights, disc jockey booths and a dance floor and all lead him to believe that The Palms was a nightclub.

But Ioannou denied this and accused Rammala in court papers of having been drunk at the time and imagining the presence of the DJ booth, which he called a "lighting control station", and a dance floor, which he claimed was merely extra space for waiters to move about.

However, Ioannou's own website states that The Palms has DJ booths and dance floors.

Some of the affluent Sandton residents living opposite The Palms filed their own interdict application for the establishment to stop acting as a nightclub and serving drinks without meals.

This was because, they say, patrons, who park in Linden Street, spoke loudly, hooted and played loud music in their cars.

One resident, who asked not to be named, said in an affidavit that he had also ?observed a patron of The Palms urinating into my garden through my front gate?.

Judgment has been reserved in that case.

Sunday Times
Publisher: I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge