"Frankly, we are tired of always appearing to be the bad guys," company spokesman Erik Clabaugh said. "We are aware of the fact that the neighborhood has been changing, and that our neighbors have spent considerable amounts of time and money improving both the overall aesthetics and feel of the block. We realize that we just don't fit here anymore, and that we can find a more appropriate place to locate our business."
According to Clabaugh, Inserection and its landlord, Cousins Properties, which is one of the largest real estate developers in the Southeast, agreed that the neighborhood was becoming more upscale, making it a poor match for the adult retailer.
The neighboring Atlanta Shakespeare Company recently underwent a $300,000 renovation — an occurrence Clabaugh cited as evidence that the time had come for the store to find a new location.
But negotiations between Cousins, which bought the property in 2004, and the store hit a snag when officials from the real estate company insisted that Inserection pay a hefty termination fee.
“At first everybody seemed to love the idea [of the move]" Clabaugh said. “But as talks went on we realized that Cousins Properties wanted us to pay them a large sum of money to grant an early lease termination. We just don't think we should have to pay our landlord to leave a location they intend to level at the end of the lease term anyway. This is the last place that we thought we would find resistance to neighborhood improvement."
Citing ongoing negotiations, Clabaugh declined to give the exact termination fee.
According to Clabaugh, the current fight to leave the downtown Atlanta location represents a reversal of fortune for the company, which has often struggled to open stores in the region, waging zoning battles against state and local governments.
"I have spent the past 12 years fighting to open stores," Clabaugh said. "I didn't realize it might be harder to close one."
