Reporter – John Dagge

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I was setup by the Block Arcade and related parties and do not owe $1.5m to the Cohens.

Mr. Grant Cohen has conveniently left out from his response to the Herald Sun, in other words (lied), that the Block Arcade, would only agree to the sale of the Hopetoun Tea Rooms est. 1892 ™ on the condition that:

(A) The Block Arcade owned the brand name, Trademark, intellectual property – Hopetoun Tea Rooms est. 1892 ™.

(B) In summary, with the Block Arcade proposal, the purchaser would be purchasing just another cafe / tea rooms

I rejected the Block Arcade proposal, as I did not want the Cohens to ever own the Hopetoun Tea Rooms est. 1892 ™

The brand that I built with my hard work over the 10 years, did not deserve to be owned by the Cohens and or a related party. They are criminals.

With no other option, I placed the Hopetoun Tea Rooms est. 1892 ™ into Administration with SV Partners in May 2020, and a sale campaign resumed.

In summary:

The sale campaign received 47 interested parties

23 parties were put forward to the Block Arcade for negotiations around the lease

The Block Arcade terminated the lease and noted that the premises was no longer up for lease

The Block Arcade sabotaged the sale campaign and forfeited their debt of $1.5m

The Block Arcade participated in their own failures to secure what they wanted.

The Article incorrectly notes that I am now in the process of relaunching the Hopetoun Tea Rooms est. 1892 ™ at a new location.

The Hopetoun Tea Rooms est. 1892 ™ has been sold in July 2020 by the Administrators/Liquidators, to a non related party of the Block Arcade and the Koutoumanos family.

The Block Arcade were unsuccessful in their bid to secure the brand with the Administrators/Liquidators as The Block Arcade offers were nothing more than less than acceptable in receiving the highest price – as noted in (Note 1 – above).

Refer to the following article for more details, on the new purchaser and the new location