Two years ago, Apotheosis Comics & Lounge made a bold move. The locally-owned comic book store on South Grand opened a second location at the corner of Jefferson and Cherokee streets in the wake of the pandemic’s pummeling of small businesses. The new spot would be more than a comic book store, co-owner Martin Casas said at the time. It would hold events, sell alcoholic drinks, and function more as a community space than just a store.
Two years later, the store at 3359 South Jefferson has closed, with no plans to reopen. And it appears Apotheosis’ first store is also in trouble.
Apotheosis is being sued by the landlord of its original South Grand location for allegedly breaching its contract. The suit, filed by 3200 South Grand LLC, alleges Apotheosis failed to pay rent and also subleased the top floor of the LLC’s building to an alternative yoga studio despite a lease that prohibited them from subleasing.
The yoga studio atop Apotheosis, Elevate Well STL, is a canna-friendly health club that has leased the space above Apotheosis South Grand since January. Co-owner Sarah Fuhrmann tells the RFT she met Apotheosis’ co-owner Martin Casas last November, when he tried to rent Apotheosis’ space at Cherokee and Jefferson to her. The building had too many windows for a yoga studio, Fuhrmann says, so Casas offered her the second floor of 3206 South Grand.
Fuhrmann says Casas pretended to own the space. She signed a lease and had no idea Apotheosis didn’t own the building until this past March.
“I got a phone call from the real owners of the building asking me what we were doing there,” Fuhrmann says.
By that point, Fuhrmann and her partner had quit their jobs, taken out loans and dedicated their lives to running the studio.
“We had taken this big leap of faith into this realm of business ownership only to get the rug f***ing torn out like a couple months in,” Fuhrmann says. “This dude had been taking our money and not paying the landlord the rent we had been paying him.”
The building’s owners were understanding, and Fuhrmann says they never tried to kick out Elevate. She’s looking to potentially expand Elevate down to the first floor, where Apotheosis currently stands.
In the meantime, having no valid lease makes it difficult for Elevate Well to operate as a legitimate business. Fuhrmann doesn’t want to leave South Grand, but the building situation makes it difficult to stay.
“We can’t move forward with anything because it requires a lease and an agreement from the actual owners of the building,” she says. “Because they’re in this lawsuit, no one can give me a lease or stuff that the city needs. We’re just stuck in limbo.”
Casas, Apotheosis' co-owner, says the closure of the Cherokee store had nothing to do with the lawsuit. He also said the South Grand location is still “going strong” but would not comment further on the legal matter.
Rough for retail
It was a rough year for retail when Apotheosis decided to open its second store in May 2021. But Apotheosis’ owners sought to open more than just a comic book store. Casas tried to orient the new location as both a hangout spot and graphic novel trove; it had video games, cocktails and local beers, as well as open mic nights and other events.
“It was heartbreaking,” Casas says of the closure. “We’ve been pouring so much money into it, and when the time came to pull the trigger to close it down, it was unfortunately what needed to be done.”
Casas, who co-owns Apotheosis with Scott Intagliata, said they did not anticipate foot traffic in the area to be “so slow.” He says there would be two-week periods when there were “maybe 15 shoppers in the store.”
“There were some days where like six people would walk by,” Casas says.
The Cherokee location was between a building undergoing rehab and the former Morning Glory diner. Morning Glory closed in August 2022 and a new tenant has yet to take over its space. Having no direct neighbors certainly didn’t help business, Casas says. All three buildings, including Apotheosis, are owned by the same ownership group that maintains and manages the buildings. Casas is also a co-owner of that group.
Jefferson Avenue bisects Cherokee Street’s main drag. Apotheosis sits at the entrance to the west side, where at least two businesses, bars San Loo and the B Side, have announced closures in the past week. The east half contains Antique Row — a major draw for shoppers.
“We were in perhaps a perfect storm of people being a little weary of walking down there,” Casas says. “The heart of Cherokee Street remains strong, apparently. I think we had more work to do to get people to our side.”
Despite low in-store sales on Cherokee, Apotheosis' online presence has served the business well, Casas says. The St. Louis Business Journal previously reported that the pandemic pushed the bookseller to expand its online presence. From October 2020 to October 2022, according to the Journal, sales at Apotheosis had more than doubled.
That momentum hasn’t stopped, according to Casas. And he says another goal for the next year will be to revive the frequency of events Apotheosis hosted before the pandemic.
“Frankly, our biggest concern is making sure we’re firing on all cylinders for the holidays,” Casas says.
On a recent trip to the Cherokee store, the store was empty and the doors locked during what would have been normal operating hours. Shelves that once held comic books were barren. Miscellaneous merchandise sat on what was once the checkout counter.
When speaking about steps forward, Casas places a lot of hope in the business’ original South Grand location.
“We made the hard decision to refocus on the main location, make sure it’s strong there, and move forward from that,” Casas says.
But at least one person isn’t rooting for the shop’s success on South Grand, and that’s Apotheosis’ former sub-lessor.
“We decided to wait for him to get evicted,” Fuhrmann says. “We would just be better off.”
UPDATE: Apotheosis Comics & Lounge provided the following statement after publication:
"We have been made aware of false and misleading statements published in the Riverfront Times by a business we had tried to help, but it seems no good deed goes unpunished.
"Contrary to what Sarah Fuhrmann has stated, she and what is now known as Elevate Well STL were well aware of the pending dispute we have had with our landlord regarding abated rent during the Covid pandemic and continuing issues with the landlord’s maintenance of the property. We in no way 'pretended' to own any building, much less the building we rented. Ms. Fuhrmann was well aware of the landlord’s identity and in fact referenced this was a sublease. We had cleared the rental of the second floor to Ms. Fuhrmann and her business with the landlord.
"But then in a twist, the landlord engaged directly with Ms. Fuhrmann. It was at that time Ms. Fuhrmann stopped paying us the agreed upon subrent, and they stopped communicating with us. It seems we should also note that the Fuhrmanns have also not paid their portion of the electric bill."
Editor's note: A previous version of this story listed Brad Heap as a co-owner of Apotheosis. While Heap was previously a partner and is named in the lawsuit for breach of contract, he says he is no longer involved in the business.
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