IDL Ballroom, Enso & The Unicorn Club Closing After August 14

The IDL Ballroom, The Unicorn Club and Enso, all connected at the corner of 1st and Detroit, will close after August 14th.

Angie Green and her husband, Tom Green, have owned IDL Quad Group for 13 years. They told News On 6 they were proud to have bounced back from the pandemic and were doing well in recent months until heartbreaking news.

"When people can come in and just purchase your building and then just boot you," said Green.

Green said after new owners took over the property in February, she hoped they could negotiate an extension to their lease beyond August. She said reality hit within the last few weeks, after her attorney told her that will not happen.

She said about 30 people will have to find work elsewhere and more than 15 events must find another venue.

"We had such a great history with our previous landlord of always paying the rent on time, always taking care of things,” said Green.

Lukas Vodicka is the manager of Inheritance Juicery, which bought the building that houses all three entertainment venues.

Vodicka, who is also property manager, told News On 6 the new owners paid the asking price in private negotiation.

"We did not outbid anyone,” said Vodicka. “We did not go into this with the intent to force someone out of business. We were actually approached by the previous owner, who reached out to us."

Vodicka also said the property made it clear that it was not going to renew the lease, offered to buy IDL Group out of its lease early and even waived the last three months' rent.

So, what's next with the property?

"We're very open and we're brainstorming many, many different ideas. Whether it's is going to be playing into the arts in Tulsa, playing into education and awareness,” said Vodicka.

You can read the full statement from Inheritance Juicery here.

Green said she is putting together a severance package for employees.

She also said those who booked events will get their money back and get help finding other options.

You can read the full statement from IDL Quad Group below.

After 13 years in business, the entertainment group IDL Quad Group and their respective venues, IDL Ballroom, The Unicorn Club (previously known as Electric Circus 2010-2017) and Enso will be closing their doors for good after the final evening of business on Saturday, August 14th, 2021. New owners purchased the building that is home to the trio of venues in the spring of 2021 and paid a hefty price, $4.71M, that far exceeded the market value of the property which made the likelihood of IDL Quad Group’s ability to purchase the building first an impossibility. In a shocking revelation, the new owners’ representative informed the owners, Angie and Tom Green, that the new building owners did not intend to renew the lease at the upcoming bi-annual renewal date of August 31, 2021 and that they instead had plans for renovations and plans to open a new business related to their new juicery next door.

“It’s hard to believe – a total gut punch – the realization that after 13 years of a thriving, successful business that was a pioneer in downtown nightlife, coupled with the fact that we made it through over 3 months of COVID lockdowns last year and survived the closure followed by months more of capacity restrictions in order to open back up, that it’s all coming to an end. It’s genuinely heartbreaking to experience this closure after we fought so hard to survive the lockdowns of 2020, while simultaneously paying/keeping current our full rent, all obligations and utilities, while also paying wages and providing food & provisions to our staff so they could also stay afloat during those tenuous months of lockdowns and restrictions, all of us fighting to survive as frontline workers, and now it’s all to come to an end due to no fault of our own because we have been faced with the non-renewal of our lease by new landlords we’ve never even met.”

Following the Covid closures of bars and restaurants last year, when bars were allowed to re-open in June of 2020, IDL Ballroom participated with the Tulsa Office of Film, Music, Arts & Culture’s benevolent program to support local musicians called Play Tulsa Music, throwing weekly concerts through the end of December so local musicians could be paid generously after being barred previously from performing for months due to the lockdowns, as well as organizing a series of sold out tribute shows in 2021 that brought musicians from all backgrounds to play with each other in themed concerts that were met with huge success and provided hope for the future to all the participating Tulsa musicians.

So now there are roughly seven fleeting weeks left for fans and customers of The Unicorn Club, Enso and IDL Ballroom to come out and have fun and dance and attend concert events until the doors close on August 15, 2021. Big concerts, events and farewell shows are planned following Independence Day up until the last night of business, including the Annual Nude Art Show, as well as the popular Latin Night dance parties, a Subsonix EDM farewell show, local band concerts and a huge DEB Concerts Farewell Blowout show on July 24th. We encourage everyone to come out and celebrate our past 13 years and ponder what’s in store for the Greens in the future, the couple who are no strangers to reinventing themselves.

Private events, weddings and corporate parties planned after the closure are being contacted privately and IDL Quad Group is in the process of refunding deposits back to those clients.

Ultimately, we want to say Thank You for 13 wonderful years. We have been fortunate to host so many weddings, concerts, corporate/private parties, and curated special events like our Annual Crystal Ball: A New Year’s Eve Masquerade and Spider Ball Halloween Party. We have packed out countless concerts and created so many beautiful memories and friendships over these years. And while it’s going to be hard to leave our legacy and hard work behind, it has been amazing to see downtown Tulsa grow and change over the years. We are glad to have our little moment in Tulsa history. Thank you to everyone who walked through our doors and supported our local family business all these years.