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A Dallas County judge on Friday again extended the order closing Rodeo Dallas, saying the Deep Ellum bar’s owners and the neighboring landlord suing them had not reached an agreement.
The order — which comes the day the latest closure order was set to expire — is the latest turn in a lawsuit filed by Asana Partners, a North Carolina real estate firm that owns dozens of Deep Ellum properties and has raised concerns about Rodeo Dallas’ impact on public safety in the city’s premier entertainment district.
Asana Partners did not immediately comment on the order on Friday. Messages to Rodeo Dallas’ attorneys were not immediately returned.
The bar, located at the corner of Elm and Crowdus streets, has been shuttered since Aug. 8, the day Asana Partners filed the lawsuit against the bar’s parent company, Rodeo Ranch Texas. District Court Judge Veretta Frazier granted the temporary restraining order the same day.
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On Friday, Frazier extended the temporary injunction because “a third-party security firm and comprehensive security plan cannot be agreed upon” as of Friday — the expiration date of the latest closure order.
As a result, the judge wrote, “the threat of imminent and irreparable harm to [Asana Partners] cannot be remedied” other than by extending the closure.
Frazier has twice extended the order, once before reaching an Aug. 22 expiration date and now again on Friday. This latest order notably remains in effect indefinitely until the court issues further guidance.
During an Aug. 14 hearing, Rodeo Dallas’s lawyers argued the bar was being unfairly blamed for Deep Ellum’s public safety issues and that owners were working with the city to make improvements.
Police officers, adjacent business owners and property owners testified at the hearing that Rodeo Dallas created an unsafe environment for both its customers and the surrounding neighborhood.
Asana Partners’ attorneys argued in court that Rodeo Dallas’s owners failed to take meaningful action after shootings near the club — including in early March when Jonathan Santos, 21, was fatally shot outside the bar — and only began making improvements in July, when the city threatened legal action if they did not make public safety improvements.
Aside from its Deep Ellum location, Rodeo Ranch Texas also operates a bar in Fort Worth called Rodeo Fort Worth.