Hip Hop Soda Shop property auctioned today

Today was selling time for the building that housed the Hip Hop Soda Shop, Bull Ring sports bar and Hops Restaurant.

Owners wanted bids to open at $2 million for the 10,000 square-foot restaurant, equipment and the land its sits on at 1241 E. Fowler Ave. About 10 registered bidders took turns at scoring the property.

The highest bid was $525,000 by Jayanti Patel, of Tampa, who wanted to tear down the restaurant to build a hotel.

The bid was later rejected by property owner Alexander Reid Land Development, LLC., of New Jersey.
They leased the property to the Hip Hop Soda Shop.

Patel, who owns a number of Sunoco gas stations around Tampa, bid on the property once before. "I tried to buy this back in 2004," he said. "I'd be getting it for the same price."

The property became available when the owners evicted the Soda Shop when the $16,000 monthly rent went unpaid, said auctioneer Peter Spatz of North American Auctioneers, Inc. who is handling the sale.

Although the offer was not accepted, by the afternoon Spatz said he was working with two restaurateurs interested in the property. A deal should be reached by the end of the week, he said.

"The economy isn't good," Spatz said, "but I have a motivated seller."

The shop featured a restaurant, bar, video gaming room and recording studio. Today, wires hang from the ceilings and naked walls that were once covered with flat screens. No memorabilia was sold.

A grand opening fit for MTV was held in December 2007 for the Hip Hop Soda Shop and featured appearances by beat boxer Doug E. Fresh, Andre Harrell, former president of Motown Records and founder of Uptown Records, and a host of rappers and artists including Busta Rhymes and Dipset hip-hop collective.

Jamar McNeil and Brian Peters conceived the idea for a restaurant for hip-hop culture and video gaming. The formula of healthy food, hip-hop music, gaming, and a community-conscious approach caught the attention of Benjamin Chavis, former head of the NAACP, who served as chief executive of H3 Enterprises.

In February 2009, the company reported a successful Super Bowl week in Tampa. "The Hip Hop Soda Shop had a great week both financially and within the realm of national branding. The amount of people that attended our numerous events was well into the tens of thousands," Peters said in a statement.

In May, H3 Enterprises, the publicly traded parent company of HipHopSodaShop, announced the closing of the Tampa franchise on its Web site "due to factors including regional business and real estate issues."

Keyword: Soda Shop, for exclusive celebrity interviews from the grand opening of the Hip Hop Soda Shop.