Kommune bosses told to kough up after legal battle

Good morning readers — and welcome to today’s Tribune.

As a journalist, there’s something distinctly glamorous — Watergate-esque even — about an anonymous source. That’s why we were pleased as punch to hear from a Tribune tipster towards the end of last month, when an email from a nameless but seemingly well-informed source landed in our inbox. Whoever it was, they’d heard we were asking around about Kommune food hall and they had some interesting information to share. 

At the time of our first story, which you can find here, the two bosses of Kommune were in a legal battle with the owner of their building, Northpoint CH, hoping to win back a lease for the building held by one of their other companies. The next hearing was to be held on 21st November, a day the tipster promised would be “key for establishing facts vs speculation”. Naturally, we were going to attend… More on that below.

The Tribune hosts its first members’ event

Thanks to everyone who came down to Hideaway on Wednesday for our exclusive members’ event. We were delighted to see so many of you (and that we — just — had enough chairs, though it was touch and go). There were some great questions from the audience, and we hope it helped you learn more about what drives our journalism, and what the Tribune has planned for the coming months. We loved meeting some of the interesting and varied bunch who think Sheffield needs quality local journalism — and it was great to see so many of you, readers who had never met one another before, getting along famously. Here are a few snaps from the event:

Given the enormous fun of our first event, it would be a shame to stop there! We'll be running more events in 2024, covering the cultural scene, politics, the environment, and much more. As one well-connected member told us after the event, The Tribune is increasingly leading Sheffield’s conversation, and events are going to become a bigger and bigger part of that.

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Your Tribune briefing

🏙️ What should Sheffield’s aims and ambitions be as a city? The Sheffield City Goals are a new idea that hopes to tackle some of the biggest challenges the city is likely to face between now and 2035. Organisations including the council, both universities and Voluntary Action Sheffield are now asking residents to help them decide what the city goals should be. Now Then have a good introduction to what the city goals are and how you can get involved here.

🎤 Next year’s Mobo Awards will be held in Sheffield for the first time. The awards, which celebrate black music and culture and have helped launch the careers of artists including Stormzy, Tinie Tempah, Estelle and Ms Dynamite, will take place at Sheffield Arena on Wednesday, 7 February. Organisers said as well as a star-studded line up, the event would also provide opportunities for aspiring Sheffield musicians to collaborate with major artists.

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Things to do

🍸 On Saturday, the UK’s largest gin and rum festival returns to the Trafalgar Warehouse in Sheffield. The event will feature over 120 of the best gins and rums on the market, including spirits from Britain and around the world as well as a huge range of flavoured products. There will also be a tequila and cocktail bar, DJs and live music. The day will be split across two sessions (early 12.30pm-5pm and late 6.30pm-10.30pm) and tickets are priced from £12.50-£15.

🎹 Also on Saturday, one of the UK’s leading pianists Tim Horton continues his series exploring the music of Chopin at the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse. As well as five pieces for solo piano by the Polish composer, Tim will also play a Ravel piece inspired by Chopin’s work. “With Tim on the piano stool,” say organisers Music in the Round. “This is guaranteed to be a breathtaking evening of music.” The concert starts at 7.15pm and tickets are priced £5-£21.

🎁 The Sharrow Vale Market returns this Sunday for a Christmas special. Expect more than 100 stalls selling a wide variety of locally-sourced and homemade produce, preserves, sweet treats, crafts, gifts and more. Alongside the stalls, there'll also be a host of live festive music and a Santa's Grotto. The market, which takes place from Hunters Bar to Stewart Road and the Peaks car parks, and includes the courtyard at Dyson Place too, runs from 12pm-4pm.

Kommune bosses told to kough up after legal battle

Nick Morgan, one of two bosses of Kommune food hall in Castle House, tells me he was “delighted” earlier this week by the conclusion of a protracted legal battle involving one of his companies. It's a surprising word to use, given the immense sum that said company was instructed to pay within the next few weeks, but it’s good to hear he’s looking on the bright side.

To refresh your memory, just shy of nine months ago, staff and vendors at Kommune food hall arrived for work in the morning and discovered they couldn’t get inside the building. The owner of Castle House, Northpoint CH, had taken the extreme step of changing the locks. This abrupt seizure affected the National Videogame Museum, Zoo Digital and a number of companies Morgan owns with his long-time friend and business partner Adrian Hackett, including Kollider Social (which runs Kommune), Kurious Arts and Kollider Incubator. But the building quickly reopened as if nothing had happened, after most of the tenants signed an interim agreement with Northpoint to replace their original leases.

It could be argued that Morgan and Hackett, unlike some of the building’s other tenants, must have seen this coming. The lease for Castle House, which Northpoint forfeited when it seized control of the building, was held until that point by another of their dual-ventures, Kollider Projects. According to Northpoint, as quoted in an article in The Star, Kollider Projects had been “failing to comply with its obligations under its lease”. 

During the weeks spent working on our previous story about Kommune, I heard accounts from numerous sources that Hackett and Morgan’s companies did not exactly have an unblemished track record when it came to paying their bills on time. But in one of a couple of phone calls I had with Hackett last month before he ceased all communication — a cold shoulder that remains resolutely unthawed to the time of publication — he insisted that Northpoint CH’s decision to forfeit Kollider’s lease was “not about non-payment”. 

Perhaps that’s true in a big-picture way, but it’s not how the judge saw it earlier this week. On Tuesday, I attended the final hearing of Kollider Project’s nearly nine-month-long battle to win back the lease for Castle House, presided over by Deputy District Judge Brian Whitehead. “What is and is not payable,” Judge Whitehead told the court, “that’s really what this all boils down to.”