Just three months after an eviction notice filled their Eat Street supper club with sour notes, the operators of Icehouse are singing an upbeat new tune.
A new ownership deal has saved the Minneapolis music haven from an eviction threat and sparked plans for a revitalization. Not all is new, though: Some of the principal players who helped make it one of the Twin Cities’ best-loved live music venues are staying in place.
Icehouse’s founder Brian Liebeck will still run day-to-day operations and remain a minority owner, and a well-known musician who’s performed there often, jazz and rock drummer JT Bates, has signed on to help manage the music programming.
“We all want to see this club survive and this neighborhood thrive,” said John Higgins, Icehouse’s new majority owner and president.
Higgins and his wife, Amy Higgins, were already silent investors in Icehouse and helped it come out of the COVID-19 shutdown with a new sound system and other refurbishments. They agreed to take over as majority owners amid negotiations over unpaid rent with the landlords of the historic property, Chicago-based Northpond Partners.
According to the eviction lawsuit filed in April by Northpond — whose Minneapolis investments also include Seven Points, the Uptown mall formerly known as Calhoun Square — Icehouse’s operators owed $118,000 in rent going back to July 2023. Liebeck said then, however, that he had a plan in place to bring the venue out from under the debt.
That plan was unveiled this week. Longtime associates of Liebeck, the Higginses enlisted the Icehouse operator’s help when they took over and rebuilt the Portage, a popular old bar in Cable, Wis., near Hayward, where the Minneapolis couple own a lake home.
A biotech businessman who’s also a Walker Art Center trustee, John Higgins said the unique challenges they faced at the Portage — the bar was gutted by a fire months into its reconstruction — made them well-prepared to take over Icehouse.
