Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., could lose her Hooters-inspired, gun-themed restaurant in a dispute with her new landlord.
The Colorado Republican told The Daily Beast she and her husband were surprised last week to receive notice from their landlord, a cannabis retailer, that their lease for Shooters would not be renewed after the building's ownership changed hands last month, and the lawmaker said they would have to find another location or close for good.
"She didn't explain exactly why her business was being kicked out," the website reported. "A person familiar with the arrangement said the property manager felt he had a 'moral' imperative to close the business, and had planned to lease the space to another restaurant."
Milkin Enterprises, the company that owns the building, was formed days before buying it, according to Colorado business records, and the two men on its incorporation documents run the cannabis dispensary Rifle Remedies, which shared an address with Shooters until 2019, and Boebert said she had previously paid rent checks to the father of one of those men, who owned the building through Meskin Enterprises.
An anti-Boebert political group claimed the day after the notice was served that Shooters would be pushed out just days before Colorado's June 28 primary, but the lawmaker told The Daily Beast that was inaccurate and scrambled to assure her employees that wasn't true.
Boebert told the website that she and her husband Jayson Boebert were "at peace" with closing after eight years, but she also said they were considering buying the property from the new owners, who she says appear open to selling.
"He said, 'If you're still interested in purchasing, I'm interested in selling,'" she said.
Boebert repeatedly denied there was a political motivation to the sudden threat to her business, but county records show the deed transfer from father to son went through two days after the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Texas, and the same day the lawmaker made news for remarking that "we didn't ban planes" after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
