This conversation with the founders of Hotbed Entertainment Group is easily the most unique podcast I've done yet. Hotbed combines both Real Estate development and an utterly unique Operating Business that can scale across OZ communities. Their offering has the staying power required by the patient investor and the tangible, long-term benefits demanded by the residents of opportunity zones. Seth Dunlap and Todd Perlmutter of Hotbed Entertainment Group are my guests on The OZExpo Podcast.
Host: Jack Heald
Guest: Seth Dunlap & Todd Perlmutter
This conversation with the founders of Hotbed Entertainment Group is easily the most unique podcast I've done yet. Hotbed combines both Real Estate development and an utterly unique Operating Business that can scale across OZ communities. Their offering has the staying power required by the patient investor and the tangible, long-term benefits demanded by the residents of opportunity zones. Seth Dunlap and Todd Perlmutter of Hotbed Entertainment Group are my guests on The OZExpo Podcast.
Host: Jack Heald
Guest: Seth Dunlap & Todd Perlmutter
And the other buildings that we had looked at in other cities and Philly and in Denver, they were in Opportunity Zones also. [inaudible] no , without us even knowing that turned out that what we were doing and the Opportunity Zone program was really lining up well. And our main goal here being a destination business, a cultural destination business is to attract like-minded , um, entrepreneurs, creators , um, you know , um , entertainers, artistic types. And so we hope to be the first one in. So a lot of these locations, you know, we're looking for investors that want to build a community or want to help support, support a community that is already there and want to help build that community up so where it's sustainable over decades.
Jack Heald:Welcome back everyone. This is the OZExpo Podcast. I'm your host Jack Heald. And joining me today are, are a couple of guys that are going to present to us something really, really different for the OZExpo Podcast, Seth Dunlap and Todd Perlmutter of Hotbed Entertainment Group. Joining me today. Todd and Seth are the founding partners of Hotbed and are also the managers of the Omni Impact Opportunity Fund. Guys, welcome to the OZExpo Podcast.
Seth:Thanks. Great. Thank you . Yeah.
Jack:Okay. So one of the, one of the downsides of audio is that we have to have a theater of a mind thing. So I want each of you to identify yourself with your name so that when people listen they can say, oh, that is Todd talking. Oh, that is Seth talking. So Todd, tell us a little bit about yourself real quick. Where'd you come from? What , uh , how'd you get here? And then we're going to throw it over to Seth so that people can put names with voice sounds.
Todd:Sure. Um, I'm Todd, this is my voice and some people may actually recognize the voice because I was the voice of Blue Man Group for 19 years or so. I worked at Blue Man Group for for 19 years as a music director of music supervisor, musician , record producer, and then the , the bulk of the time as a creative director. And after putting together some , um , a project with to other former Blue Man , um , colleagues, we put together this , uh , this show project and then we met Steph and Rosa.
Jack:All right, now let's flip it over to Seth.
Seth:Yeah, this is Seth. Um, thanks again for having a song. We appreciate the time and um, I came about , uh, our time here today, a little bit differently, maybe a little less exciting and creative than Todd , but it all put us here working together. So I , um , actually come from the Midwest and uh , lived in Chicago for many years and worked for a number of different , um , institutional boutique money managers. And so I represented , um, you know, asset managers and raising money for those funds. It's really across the country in different markets, registered investment advisors, family offices and institutional work. Um , so really got my start into financial , um, and services, financial , um , investments , a kind of world. Um, my wife and I are partners in this business and we met our partners. Now Todd, Jenny and Collin and kind of your traditional , um, landlord-tenant situation. As we started to work on a project down in New Orleans , um , my wife and I both left our jobs a few years back to focus on historic preservation real estate. Um , you know , and adaptive reuse projects have these historic types of properties. And so our background in the investment side and then the real estate side paired nicely with their, their creative development side. And so , um , we all decided the partner together, create Hotbed Entertainment Group. And here we are today talking about what we feel is a very exciting opportunity , um, surrounding our concept here.
Jack:All right , so that takes us to , what the heck is your concept? This is really different for the Opportunity Zone. So tell us about Hotbed Hotbed Entertainment Group and why you are here talking to us in the Opportunity Zone Expo.
Todd:Yeah, sure. I'll, I'll give you like a , a little bit , um , more clarity on that, on the history and how it came about. So , um , after putting together, basically the, the , A team of people that I worked with over at , uh, at Blue Man , um , my partner Colin came up with a, a show concept that was basically a new way to experience live music. Uh, something that was , uh , breaking down the , uh , the separation. If you go to see a concert, you sit in [inaudible] in a seat and there's band on stage and, and there's just a , a separation and, and a , the show concept you move about with the musicians. You could sit on the stool with , with the piano player and they're different. It's not a seated environment. There's different places where you can go and, and have the , the intimate , um , you know , music experience, the ones that give you the goosebumps. And um , we did a workshop of the show in New York. It's like a trial run, something that to do in front of you , an audience to make sure that the concept works. And we rented a , uh , okay . Electronics, store in Tribeca just turned it over into our space for a month. Okay . And , uh , we invited audiences and the workshop was hugely successful, far better than any of us had expected. Um, you know, people were just dying to come back and everyone wanted to stay. And of course it was, you know , it was in [inaudible] . Yeah . It wasn't exactly a legal situation. We will [ inaudible] But , um, but the , uh, you know, that concept worked and um, and the , uh , uh , part partly, you know, because we'd, we'd got , you know , we'd put together some of these other great , okay. Um , a creative people from our experience of Blue Man and outside to , to help make it happen. Yeah . So just because of the workshop, someone that [inaudible] being the workshop and was blown away, actually a friend of their friend had contacted Stephan Rosa . Yeah. Because Stephan Rosa had this building . They were trying to figure out what to do with it in New Orleans and , and , uh, we met them and we hit it off really well. And, and started down the path of just a standard situation where we were gonna that was going to be our first show. Our plan always was to sort of follow in Blue Man, what's that openness? The first show, you know, in 12- 16 months open a second show, 12 to 16 month open . The third show. Yeah . And um , you don't have a centralized , um , yeah , uh , you know, creative department, Centralized Marketing Department and quality control, which is really important to be learned that from the experience at Blue Man Group. So the , uh , uh , during this process , it turns out that the building that we were looking at, that [inaudible] definitely this building was in an Opportunity Zone. And the other buildings that we had looked at in other cities in Philly and in Denver, they were in Opportunity Zones also. And without us even knowing that. And so it just turned out that what we were doing and the Opportunity Zone program was really lining up well. We , we're a destination oriented business with multiple businesses. Insighted revenue streams and a , it didn't have to be on main street. We needed to do a full build out, you know, we didn't want to rent a theater. Our show doesn't have a typical t heater seat and stage scenario and after, u h, you know, figuring that out. We decided to restructure and take advantage of the Opportunity Zone program and kind of put, u h, a , a bunch of these locations together and t hey're, a nd they'll all be on their own p ath of, of development. S o that's kind of w here, where we're at now, where we started Hotbed and we created the, the, u h, O mni Impact Opportunity Fund to do that.
Jack:So this is. This is actually a qualified Opportunity Zone Business that has a significant real estate component to it, right?
Todd:Yes. Yeah , yeah .
Jack:And an Opportunity Zone, a qualified Opportunity Zone fund too , as the financial vehicle to get you there. So you guys are [inaudible]
Todd:Yeah. It's kind of a ready to go. You know, it's a, it's a fund and we have the project and the business and it's, you know, and it's, it's, it's ready to go now. We're not, we don't , uh, we don't need to wait to locate a building. We have identified buildings and, and it's a , it's ready to move.
Jack:So there's, this is a unique situation. You , you're, you're on the financing side. You've got to fund on the financing side and you're actually financing a real live, honest to God QOZ business. That puts you in a , a fairly unique slot. I mean , just in terms of the people I've talked to and the fact that the business is an entertainment business is a really, really different , um, so tell us.
Todd:Instead of a unique , uh , the situation in an , in a variety of ways. We have this business, we have, we scoured the country looking for, you know, basically the needle in the haystack property other than the ones that Ceftin Rosa already had, which was amazing to begin with. And so, you know, cause it's a very specific thing we're , we need, I mean we need to have, and it has, you need to have an audience and we need , the building has to be the right size and the right kind of situation. And , uh, we found almost, I think all of them were off market and , uh, you know, we've I.D. these amazing properties, have this great business and be in the entertainment , um, situation. It makes it the situation we're investing in, let's say a Broadway show or a film. It's a, you know , kind of a passion play . You're like, oh , I'm going to put the money up. And if it's , if it makes money, there's a huge upside. I could make a ton of money and this would be a great experience and I get to go to the cast party, you know , its truly an amazing thing. But of course you could just lose it all in the right situation in this situation. It's a, in the Opportunity Zone program. It's , it's okay . It's very different because you will never lose it all. We will , I mean, we think that the , you know , our history isn't long leaded entertainment. Yeah . The Blue Man show, which is, was running at , you know , getting up to 30 years. But , um , but , uh, a partner Jenny has worked on long running shows and that's kind of what , you know , when she got on board, we were, we knew that we were onto onto something. Um , but the, the uh , uh, the idea that you could invest in this entertainment that has a huge , uh , lucrative upside and have the stability of the real estate to back it up , um , makes it very, very different. And we [inaudible] we're hoping that that will , uh , entice people who wouldn't normally , um, you know, these straight up entertainment invested, be interested in this business.
Jack:That makes sense. Um, I will confess that when, when Jenny and I first began talking, I could not wrap my head around what your plan was. And it's, it's not because there's anything wrong with the plan. It's that it is so unique. Um, now for the, I'm a bit of a theater geek myself, so Blue Man Group is, I know all about it, but I'm not going to assume that my audience does. Oh, I should back up. I didn't realize Blue Man Group had that particular business model. I just assumed it was a show that happened to finally land in Vegas. Um, give us a little bit more about the business structure of Blue Man Group. Um, so that we understand what's happening with Hotbed Entertainment Group.
Todd:Uh , well it was not exactly the same, but there are similarities and you know, we've learned from the experience of going through it. So the, yeah , Blue Man Group started off on the, on the streets and um , and they opened their first show in, in New York, Uptown. And then, yeah , a couple of years after that they opened their third show in Chicago. And then the fourth show was in Vegas. And then after Vegas there was Orlando and then shows in Europe. There's one in Berlin that's still running and then tours and Japan. And you know , it just expanded from there. And my partner, Jenny was , uh , basically around since the second show in Boston. And she was an executive producer , uh, in a, in the , uh, the VP of creative development during that, that expansion. Um, so she was intimately involved in the, in those details of how it went down. And was it amazing training ground for her and , uh , you know it was obviously the amazing training ground for me and my partner Colin. As well, just because of the amount of creativity and commerce that was happening. At the same time, I think that the , uh , there's a challenge with , uh , with creative businesses and, and creative producers where , um , the appropriate line between funding creativity and funding , uh , [inaudible] and being smart about planning your business. And there's a , it's a , it's a fine line and if it's an arch , uh, you know, I think it was a great training ground for us to be a part of that. And especially Jenny who was the , uh , executive who is an executive producer and the , uh , the vice president in charge of creative development at that time. And so, so we're, I think we're cherry picking the best parts of how that works and, you know, but up for us, yeah . You know, we saw some, some things that we'd like to change. For instance, in a, you know, let's just take New York for instance. There's this extremely valuable real estate and it's being used about three hours a day.
Jack:Right.
Todd:Plan , our plan was to say, well, that's , you know, we should use the real estate at least 12 hours a day. So that's why we haven't business plan B, the restaurant, the cafe and the bar. And there is , and after the show, there's more entertainment to follow and kind of a concept is that, you know , it's , it's a destination. But beyond that, after seeing so many people come to Blue Man and get so excited and be, you know, so riled up by their experience and experienced that at our workshop, they just wanted to stay okay . You know , Blue Man had to send them on the street to go to some other bar and we, we thought that it would be better if we just had one day or so. We could keep the people in our bar and yeah . And continue their excitement. So, you know, we have, we're just uh , we , you know, we've changed some of the things we , we learned a lot from blue moon , but I think we're, we've uh, you know, we have a, a , a new plan of, of optimizing the business and the real estate.
Jack:Okay. I want to throw something at you here because I , I just thought of an analogy. When you buy a ticket to sneyland, you're walking into a, a venue that provides all kinds of different ways to entertain you. All under a single label, a single brand. And because it's physically so big. I think it's a different kind of of maybe mental experience. It sounds to me like what you've conceived of is you're going to, we have a , we've got a destination that you can go to at 6:30 in the evening and have dinner and drinks and then go to a show and then after the show, have a, another place to go for after dinner drinks where you're connecting with the other folks who attended and talk about what you saw and the whole evening entertainment experience. But all under a single roof that provides a similar set of diverse micro destinations, maybe kinda like Disneyland. That's what it sounds like you're describing to me.
Todd:Yeah, that's , uh, that's, that's exactly right. I mean, the reason it's called Hotbed is because he wanted to create , um, you know, I've seen a , you know, a Hotbed of creativity , uh, that we're , you know, there's , and there's culinary arts in that creativity and there's the theatrical elements and there's live music and you know, and a lot of things to enjoy and be a part of and you can come again and again, unlike going to, you know, a regular Broadway show, are you, would you go there once? You're not going to [inaudible] I see it over and over again. This is something that you could go to over and over again. You could go just to the concert and you could see the show multiple times cause it's a different experience each time. That you can go to the restaurant. You can , um, you know, we're really hoping to set up theme that is something that's enticing for a variety of people for a variety of reasons.
Jack:All right , I'm going to, you didn't know this about me, but I'm actually a trained musician and amateur actor, so I've, I'm , I'm familiar with the theater scene. Um,
Todd:what , what do you, what do you play?
Jack:I'm a keyboard player. Um, but that's got nothing to do with this. Um, I know that live theater is as amazing an experience as, as it is. It is notoriously difficult to sustain. In all, but, but the most, the most , uh, population dense locations. How do you plan to make it work in the Opportunity Zones? How do you address that? And, and , and I'm talking about potential investors. You're talking to potential investors now. How do you plan to overcome particular problem?
Todd:I mean, the, the , uh, you know, part of the, yeah , a big part of it is having gone through many, many months of trying to find the ideal location . You know what I mean? I, I don't think that that we could just, you know, walk into an Opportunity Zone and , uh , you know, I dunno , you know, just some stayed and think that it was going to work. We had to find locations where there was , um , where they were already destinations , where there was already some amount of the tourism or in some cases a lot of tourism and , uh, a and our business , um, you know, model because there's multiple revenue streams. Everything is not reliant completely on this show. But the show is also designed to be something that you can experience over and over again. It is not the same. It's basically, it's a lot more of a music , uh , a show, then a, then anything like a regular theater show. So, you know, and the music changes and the, it's, it's different every time. And really, really the, the main goal of this is having an experience where you're very, very close to these spectacular musicians. Right. So , uh , and we feel that that's something that's that will be also be sustainable. Uh , uh , you know, it'll be, it'll be fresh and it'll keep, you know, the be exciting each time. We don't , it's not the same exact , uh , you know , script like a, like a Broadway show would be, but I think the destination of what we chose, to put, the locations that we've chosen really is a, a big part of , uh , how it will become sustainable because it's going to have new people coming into the city. I mean the New Orleans, show. Just as the first one that we, we locked down, you know , it has a big tourist business and okay . We're pretty confident that the uh , you know, this will become part of your destination when you go to New Orleans. You know , there's, there isn't a ton of 'em of different kinds of experiences. There's , uh , there are plenty of things to do there but not structured like were structured. And I feel like it will become a , a , you know, a destination that will be one of the things that people go to New Orleans for now till the end of time.
Jack:So kind of like a, maybe like a House of Blues kind of feel. You know, we've got, I know there's, I think the first one was actually in New Orleans. Um, we've got one in Phoenix.
Todd:I don't think its. House of Blues i s a little bit, u m, a little bit more of a, you know, u h, u h, just a restaurant and a regular venue. This is a little, w ill be a special, u m, this will be a little more special than that. Sorry House of Blues.
Jack:Oh, that's okay. That's okay.
Seth:Um, and yeah, excuse me, this is Seth. And just speaking to the real estate specifically and you know, this funding kind of multifaceted with the real estate in the operating business. Um, you know, each of these properties that we've identified and as Todd mentioned, we've, we've spent the last six, eight months kind of all over the country in many different markets and seeing many different Opportunity Zone s , properties , um, you know, these properties are, are selected for all the reasons that Todd mentioned by location. Um, the ability to , to , to apply an adaptive reuse , um , scenario to a historic or architecturally significant property that fits in to the concept and allows the concept to grow and, and, and reach its full potential. But there's also just from an investment stand p oint, y ou a sked about the investor. U m, there's also also multiple revenue streams a nd in a lot of these properties. And so there's opportunity for additional real estate development. And our main goal here being a destination business, a cultural destination business, is to attract like minded , um, entrepreneurs, creators , um, you know , um , entertainers, artistic types. And so we hope to be the first one in to a lot of these locations, but our goal is , is to attract others that compliment either our concept that , that continue to further provide sustainable jobs, which is, which is our main goal here. Um , from the beginning before the Opportunity Zone program was even a realization for us. Um, so the, so the real estate is very dynamic, just like the operating business is very dynamic. The operating business is , you know, as Todd mentioned, you kind of choose your own experience. You can do it many times. The ticket sales I believe is only about 35% or 40% of the overall revenue streams. Same goes for our real estate. So we feel like it's a very diversified fund both on the operating side and the real estate portfolio side. Um , so I think that right there has been very appealing to investors right out of the gates and the initial conversations that we've been having. You know , there's a path therefore , so , you know, significant investment opportunity over the next 10, 15, 20, 30 years, we hope. And um, but, but our project offers, you know, the, the , uh , economic impact and the job creation, not just from the real estate development side, whereas these real estate projects get completed, the jobs kinda start to diminish and go away. Then we're loading in the sustainable cultural artists, musician type of jobs that we feel will be there for, you know, decades to come. And so that all offers in one full fund. We think a really great investment scenario.
Jack:I absolutely agree. I'm, I have often sat around with my, my musician buddies and my theater buddies and lamented that, lamented the fact that there is nothing in the world like a live theater, live music experience. And yet it is so bloody difficult to sustain as a business. The, the folks who figure it out, it's almost like printing money it seems like. Um, and , and there's no other experience anywhere in the world like it, but gosh, it's, it seems like unlocking the secret there is. Um, you know , I don't know whether you have or not, but boy, I , I get the vision. I feel it. I love it.
Seth:Great. Well we hope, we hope, um, that, that we're getting closer and I think by starting in the right place in the fact that this concept, this project existed again before we realized that it was kind of a perfect or natural fit for the Opportunity Zone program. You know, the, the, the reason why my life, my wife and I, you know, like this team and this concept for our own property first was that we felt that it started to build some sort of infrastructure, some sort of sustainable job opportunities, some sort of um, you know, professional and career path development for the musicians in New Orleans who need it the most. You know, New Orleans is a city that has, you know, 10 I think 11, 12 million tourists a year that comes through and they all want to see music. And the hardest part , um , that we realized in living in New Orleans is these musicians trying to make sustainable wages, trying to develop a career with their god given talent. And that was really why we were attracted to the project first. You know, all of this , everything else has kind of fell in place as, as we went down the path and realized that we could have something really powerful here by combining the, the business and the real estate. And it gives us the ability to think longterm . It gives us the ability to really invest in jobs that are sustainable and jobs that will remain in jobs that can build a really , um , honorable and, and, and , um, you know, lucrative professional path for a lot of these musicians that didn't otherwise exist. Okay .
Todd:I'll follow that up. Yes . Yeah. With a little bit of a personal history that it may be maybe interesting . In the , uh , here in the 90s, right . I was a basically a rock musician, relatively broke, occasionally homeless, no bank account. If I got, if I got a check, I would cash it at the bar. That's just the way, and I sort of accepted that this may be the way, you know, that it might be the way it is for me as a musician. And uh , and I got the job at Blue Man and you know , and it changed my life. All right . I opened this bank account and I got health insurance and I got a 401k. And then, but beyond that, you know, w ith this, a ny job, I also had a career path. I w ent, from musician to then music producer. I p roduced their first record and, and second record, but y eah, but a , and then became a music director, y our music supervisor and, and you know, and I became a creative director a nd executive at the company a nd I t his, it changed my life dramatically a nd in so many ways. And u h, you know, and it is definitely part of the impetus and the desire t wo do the same kind of thing and help other musicians who were in the situation like me, you know, to have a career path a nd some stability and security because, u h, they deserve it.
Jack:I'm jumping up and down here inside this, this excites the jeepers out of me. Um, one of the questions that I was going to ask as I was thinking about this interview was in order to make this work, you need the artists. You need the creators. You need the musicians to sustain the long term , to make this longterm sustainable. Um, and almost by definition, the folks who have chosen, or that particular life, they probably live in an Opportunity Zone just because there's so little money in pursuing that. Um, it seems like you've almost got a built in audience.
Todd:Yea and there's a , you know , I , Yup . Part of our goal is [inaudible] , you know, using the, this Opportunity Zone , um , program too , you know, too develop a , the key to really invest in the community. I mean, we're delivering the jobs, but the other thing is, you know , it's not , not a new construction where, you know, it's a , it's , we're , we're , we're holding onto the fabric of these buildings and these locations and employing the locals into these places and having it be a cultural center. And I think that that's, I think that's going to be part of our success.
Jack:Oh , absolutely. You can't, you can't come into a culture uprooted, tear it out, throw it away and try to plant a new culture that just doesn't work. And that's, and that's literally the, the, the total opposite of what the opportunities own program was designed for. I, I'm just, I have turned into , I've gone from being an interviewer to a fan boy here, and that's probably not appropriate. Um, let me ask you this question. Who, what , what's a profile of your ideal investor?
Seth:Um, yeah, I , I think, you know, I touched on a few of those things before, but you know, as we've always looked at this, this concept and, and , um, you know, we've thought about it over the longterm , um, again, creating sustainable opportunity if you will, again , um, for, for, you know, for the, for the longterm . And so we're looking for , um , and investors, meaning partners , um, that have that longterm vision that are wanting to have a, you know, immediate social and economic impact, but also that are likeminded and , and you know, can can see our vision and , and see that what we're trying to create as something that'll go far and beyond the benefits and the tax benefits of the Opportunity Zone program. We were just using the opportunities on structure because we felt that it aligned perfectly with our initial mission, which was to have, you know , sustainable community and economic impact. And so we want investors , um , that are not just looking for returns. That's obviously a big part of it and has to be their test to start those conversations. But we want investors that are looking, you know, as this, you know, at this and, and you know, as a relationship and you know, that we will build and we will develop and we will give back to the community over a long period of time. So even past that 10 years, which, you know, seems to be the, the biggest , um, you know , timelines here for the most amount of, of, of um, um , opportunity or the most amount of economic and investment impact that this program offers. But we're looking for , um, like-minded investors that, you know, will , will invest with us, not just their capital, but also , um, you know, their, their passion and their vision to , to have that sustainable impact in the community and really lift up a community. Um , that will be there. Maybe, you know, I hope that it's there, you know, long after I'm gone and you know , maybe my children are participating in this and second generation of music , musician and artist children are participating in this concept and everyone's continuing to benefit because we were there early on and we offer some sort of platform, some sort of infrastructure to make this sustainable outside of even just our particular concept . And as I mentioned before, it's important to us to attract other like-minded investors. Um, and , and even other like minded concepts that we'll continue to build on that infrastructure that we hope to set as an example or kind of lead by example. And you know, we hope that people take our model and they , they try to replicate it in whatever their passion is. You know, mine, mine has to be, you know, minds particularly in historic real estate preservation. Um, you know, Todd and Jenny and Collins is in the entertainment side of business and the creative side. And then music side. You know, we hope that there's other businesses that we'll come around artists , um, and the likes that we'll fill in and continue to add to that community. So , um, you know, we're looking for investors that want to build a community or want to help support , support a community that is already there. I want to help build that community up so where it's sustainable over decades.
Jack:So tell us about the Omni Impact Opportunity Fund. Um , this sounds like technically it's a multi-asset fund because you're , you're funding projects in several different cities, but it's essentially the same type of property doing, performing the same type of function in every city. Is that correct?
Seth:Yes. And um , you know, each one of properties that we've identified right now, we have , um, five properties that are either under contract in our control or in that process. Um , each one of those properties are being unique and each, you know, market being being unique. But the idea is, that again. You know , we are owning the real estate inside of this fund and also the operating business. And so we have one part real estate portfolio companies and we have one part QOZB. Um , so we think it's unique in that fact. And then once we get into each individual market, you know, we have properties that are historically or architecturally significant. Um, we , we have one actually identified that's on the national registry of historic places. And so again, what we're trying to do is go in, preserve , um, um, you know , um , and then apply our adaptive reuse to these projects rather than leveling what we feel are really amazing properties and building, you know, a number of, of different types of develops on developments on top of it. So the fund we think , um, you know, offers kind of a double impact, if you will, one historic preservation and restoration and then two again, that operating business that, that, that will offer what we, what we hope will be sustainable jobs even after the benefits of this program.
Jack:Makes Sense. How big is the fund?
Seth:Right now, with the properties we have identified, we're looking to raise $63 million.
Jack:All right .
Seth:Um , and , and that will, that will , you know, purchase the real estate that will do all the capital improvements that was needed on this real estate, the preservation work that's needed on this real estate. And that will also load in the Opportunity Zone, the qualified Opportunity Zone business, which is, you know, the Hotbed business and the show.
Jack:How many, how many locations have you currently identified?
Seth:Okay . So we have four locations that we'll actually um, four venue locations that will actually house the, the show, the concept of music venue. And then we have a location which will serve as the , the corporate headquarters and creative development offices and um, that will continue to feed and, and keep with , um, kind of the , the, the synergy and the integrity of all of our shows across the country. And so that will, that will be used kind of as the developmental center , um, and serve as, you know , um, other types of programming and things that will develop through there.
Jack:Okay . Wow. I love it. It's, it's very, very cool. I want to see a hot bed show in Phoenix, I hope. I hope Phoenix is , is on your mind, on your map. And if it's not, I guess I'm going to have to come to New Orleans, right? Well, if ,
Seth:Well we have, we have a number in New Orleans, but we have a number of different , um, interesting markets. And you know, I think it's , it's, it's okay to mention the markets that we're looking at. Um , you know, we have two, in Nevada , um, we're looking at , um, a market, we're looking at Reno, we're looking at Las Vegas, New Orleans, Detroit, and then we have a number of other cities that we have looked at and we've identified properties , um , that , that are kind of in the mix as well. Um, we felt that, you know, you have to start somewhere and we felt these markets with the special types of properties that we've identified in these markets was the best place to start. Um, and, and you know, the place that would allow us to, to really build this concept from the ground up and really make an impact immediately in these communities. Um, but we have a number of different markets that we really enjoy. And would love to um, you know, to look at. And , um, so we're, we're kind of open at this point, but right now we're focused in really on those four markets and then the developmental corporate headquarters ,
Jack:uh , you know, the one that really catches my ear is Detroit. I love that idea. Wow . I'll talk about it. Talk about an opportunity to make a significant cultural impact.
Seth:Pretty cool. Yeah, I mean, Detroit has a lot of, a lot of good things going for it. And as I mentioned earlier, you know , I'm from the Midwest and, and , um, live in Chicago for many years and Detroit was a city that I visited quite a bit and, you know, in the middle two thousands and saw kind of the, you know, you know, the fiscal, you know , um, disaster or kind of fiscal, Hurricane Katrina is a lot of times it's , it's interrelated too . And so I see a lot of parallels with New Orleans and Detroit. Um, and from that we see, you know, a lot of opportunity to make an impact pretty , pretty immediately. And so that was certainly attractive to us. You know , from Detroit market standpoint, but there's also just an amazing amount of historic structures that need saved and need , you know, and need not be turned , you know , torn down. And so that's equally exciting. So yeah, all these markets we feel very confident about but also very excited about for many different reasons. Um, but all of them coming back to that core of what our mission statement is , um, preservation , um, both from a real estate and a cultural standpoint and, and community development and sustainability from there.
Jack:Well, I think we have stoked the appetite of any listeners who might be remotely interested. So the next obvious question is what is the next step for folks who are interested? How do they get ahold of you? What's the best way to contact you and get more details about this venture that you guys have embarked upon. Okay .
Todd:You can , uh , you can get us at info@Hotbedmusichall .com . You , uh , if you want, you can even write me direct . I'm Todd@hotbedmusichall.com. And , um , uh , yeah. Or you can find me on LinkedIn.
Jack:Very good. All right, very good.
Seth:The one thing that I would say on top of that is, is yes, you know, the contact information that Todd mentioned. Um, but we are like, like we said from the beginning, we are a fund that is ready go now. I mean we have properties identified, we are, you know, we're available to accept capital today. Um, and we want to start building out these projects as soon as possible. And so , um, you know, if, if anyone isn't interested , you know, I , I urge you to reach out to us, we can, we can start having real time , immediate conversations about putting capital gains to work in this program.
Jack:Absolutely. Well that was going to be my next question was any final words for us. So I think you might've given us that. I do want to remind our listeners that this contact information will be available in printed form on the podcast website. So just in case you missed it there, you'll be able to either rewind or just go to the podcast website and download it there. Well , uh , Seth and Todd, this is probably been the most for me personally, interesting interview I've done in the, in the entire Opportunity Zone just because, like I said, I'm a live theater geek. I love that kind of stuff. Um, so I , I want to stay connected just because I want to see this work. I love the idea and uh , I think you guys are , have really got a brilliant, this looks like a great team and a great idea. So , um, I'm on board . Let's make this happen.
Seth:Yeah, we appreciate the time and, and yeah, certainly. Let's stay in touch and we'll let you know how progress develops.
Jack:All right , well for Seth Dunlap and Todd Perlmutter of Hotbed Entertainment Group, I am Jack Heald with the OZExpo Podcast. Thanks so much for joining us today. Please go ahead and press that subscribe button so your updated anytime we drop a new episode that happens several times a week and we'll talk to you next time.