Save The Elephant

SAVE THE ELEPHANT


Four years ago, we embarked on a journey to save one of Baltimore’s iconic buildings – 924 N Charles Street -- and in it open a globally inspired fine dining restaurant – The Elephant.

Today, The Elephant is in jeopardy of closing … and the historic architectural elements of this grand 1850’s town home – by Tiffany, Lockwood, Mercer, and Rinehart – may soon be ripped out and sold piece-by-piece … due to a hostile takeover by one of our initial investors.

Upon learning of this dire and time sensitive situation, friends and fans of The Elephant have expressed an overwhelming outcry of love and heartbreak … many of whom suggested that we start a Go Fund Me campaign.   

Together, you and others can help us Save he Elephant … which recently was voted Maryland’s Favorite New Restaurant … by making a generous contribution that will be used to buy out this greedy individual.

 
HOW WE GOT TO WHERE WE ARE TODAY

We leverage all our personal resources to bring this grand home back to life, as the building was in such disrepair that no bank would give us an initial mortgage. When the project required more work than had been anticipated, as often happens with a project of this size in a historic structure, we received “gap” loans from friends and family. These loans were done with the understanding and expectation that once the building was fully renovated and the restaurant was in full operation, we would obtain a traditional bank mortgage to pay them back.

Then almost three years ago, after a 20-month total renovation, we opened The Elephant in July 2016. Since then we have been trying to secure a traditional bank mortgage to make repayment as promised to our “gap” funders. We approached nine lending institutions, both small and large, with all of them rejecting our inquiries without even considering our financials. They either didn’t want to support a restaurant or didn’t want to support a project in Baltimore. As one bank official told us: “… there is after all the Baltimore problem.”
 
THEN THE SHOE DROPPED

Finally, we found a bank that was willing and ready to give us a traditional mortgage to be used to re-pay the gap loans. But just before the bank filed the paperwork with the SBA, one of the gap funders “called” his note and filed charges against us in Federal Court. His actions caused us to be disqualified for the bank’s SBA mortgage. 
 
UNFORTUNATELY, WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME

This individual has now threatened to take the property from us. He plans to hold a “side-walk” sale of our treasured building and beloved restaurant on May 1st. 

But with your assistance, if we raise $600,000 by the end of April, we can buy him out and stop him from causing The Elephant to close and stop the potentially destruction of this magnificent building.

So please consider a contribution of $100,000, $10,000, $1,000, $100 or what ever you can do to Save The Elephant and this iconic building located in Baltimore’s historic Mt Vernon neighborhood.

With an abundance of appreciation and gratitude for your consideration,

Mallory Staley, Co-Owner
Linda Brown Rivelis, Co-Owner
Steven Rivelis, Co-Owner