The venue’s previous co-owners are facing multiple lawsuits and a criminal investigation.

The New Parish in Oakland, California, has been purchased by Allen Scott, head of concerts and festivals for Another Planet Entertainment, Billboard has learned. This caps off a tenuous period for the venue founded in 2010 and once recognized as the “Rookie of the Year” by Ticketfly, only to later find itself embroiled in multiple lawsuits over its ticketing deals.

Another Planet Entertainment is one of the world's biggest independent promoters, producing the annual Outside Lands Festival and booking venues like the Greek Theatre in Berkeley and the Fox Theatre in Oakland. Scott will hold a controlling interest in the New Parish while co-founder Michael O’Connor will still own a stake in the 500-cap venue first opened eight years ago in a downtown space previously known as Sweet Jimmies, a '90s hub for Oakland nightlife. The sale and reorganization come after a rough stretch for the venue, which has gone through three ticketing companies in three years, faced two lawsuits over breach of contract and saw its co-owner Jason Perkins leave the country after a series of high-profile violent confrontations with several homeless individuals in San Francisco.

A representative for Scott confirmed the purchase to Billboard. O’Connor and Perkins were contacted for this story, but did respond to requests for comment.

Scott is a longtime Bay Area promoter who joined former Bill Graham Presents president Gregg Perloff in 2003, just months after Perloff and BGP colleagues Sherry Wasserman and Steve Welkom came together to form Another Planet Entertainment. Scott already partners with O’Connor for the Independent in San Francisco, where Scott is majority owner and Another Planet serves as the exclusive promoter.

Perkins -- who is believed to be living in Israel, according to several sources -- came under fire this summer after being accused of leaving violent and threatening notes at a homeless encampment near his Brick and Mortar venue in San Francisco, including a full-page letter addressed to “Junkie Mother Fuckers,” warning, “If you are still here after dark tonight, the hunters will become the hunted."

“We will pound you, burn you, beat you and fuck you up if you are within 100 yards of this park,” the unsigned letter left at a homeless encampment read. “Take your shit and get the fuck out or we will gladly beat you silly and enjoy the payback.”

Days later, leaked surveillance video shows a homeless man confronting Perkins over the notes and hitting his car with a bat. Perkins responded by pulling out a weapon and chasing the homeless man down the street -- Perkins first told a friend the weapon was a gun, then later said it was actually mace, according to the East Bay Express. He also allegedly wrote long and often violent screeds about the homeless on Facebook and Twitter and told his followers, “San Francisco is turning into New York City in the 1970s."

The fight and threats against the homeless prompted outcry from non-profit groups in the Bay Area with artists threatening to boycott the venues controlled by Parish Entertainment Group. Since the scandal became public in June, O’Connor told the East Bay Express that Perkins has completely divested from the New Parish, but retains an ownership stake in Brick and Mortar.

Parish Entertainment Group is also facing two lawsuits over past ticketing contracts, accused of accepting more than $600,000 in advance payments and then breaching their agreements and signing with a new ticketing company for potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars more in advances. Last week San Francisco Superior Court judge Teri Jackson set a trial date for Parish’s lawsuit with Ticketfly, filed by Ticketfly attorneys alleging that Perkins had accepted a $110,000 advance to renew his ticketing contract in 2014 only to become upset with the terms four months later when he learned that rival ticketing companies like Vendini were willing to pay more that four times the amount for the ticketing contracts for the New Parish, as well as venues he controlled like Leos in Oakland and the Crafty Fox in San Francisco.

Ticketfly co-founder Andrew Dreskin -- who now serves as head of music at Eventbrite following the company’s acquisition of Ticketfly last year -- says Ticketfly offered to modify the agreement, but “Perkins responded that he was still dissatisfied with the proposed terms” and “believed he was not given a fair agreement,” according to a sworn declaration.

In November 2014, Perkins notified Ticketfly that it would cease using its platform and planned to switch to Crowdtorch. Dreskin now says Parish Entertainment Group owes Ticketfly $97,706 in outstanding payments from the signing bonus and another $418,445 in lost profits, although he did say Ticketfly generated more than $271,000 in fees during the three years it worked with New Parish. Billboard reached out to a representative at Ticketfly for this story and was told the company does not comment on pending litigation.

Vendini, which bought Crowdtorch a year after it signed the New Parish in 2014, also ended up suing Parish Entertainment Group two years into their four-year contract. According to court documents, in 2014 Crowdtorch paid $500,000 to Parish Entertainment Group through signing bonuses and recoupable advances for a four-year contract to ticket Parish Entertainment Group’s venues. In late 2016, Parish Entertainment Group allegedly breached the contract and moved its venues to the Ticketmaster-controlled Ticketweb system. Vendini says New Parish only generated $177,000 in fees and last year Vendini won and collected a $323,000 default judgment in the case. Perkins and O’Connor have appealed the ruling, saying they weren’t properly served or notified about the cases. Both sides have filed briefs with California’s 1st District Court of Appeals and a decision is expected later this year.

The lawsuits mark a drastic turn of events for the New Parish, which had been considered a “client success story” by Ticketfly according to a blog post from April 2012.

"Parish Entertainment Group venues were the first to use the Ticketfly Facebook App as a beta partner,” according to the post. "Parish Entertainment Group was named Rookie of the Year during Ticketfly’s 2012 Client Summit and the Ticketfly staff regularly hangs out in their awesome venues.”

The trial between Ticketfly and Parish Entertainment Group is set to begin March 18, 2019. In an August filing, O’Connor’s attorney Francis McKeown argued that the promoter ended his contract because he learned that Ticketfly allegedly “represented and assured” Parish Entertainment Group “they were getting the best possible deal and were scaling back signing bonus money to their customers” -- a claim Parish Entertainment Group lawyers allege Ticketfly knew to be “knowingly false."