Notes Live, the private Colorado Springs entertainment company that’s building the 8,000-seat, open-air Sunset Amphitheater on the city’s north side and envisions similar venues in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas, has taken a major step toward becoming publicly owned.
On Monday, Notes Live and Fresh Vine Wine, a financially troubled, 5-year-old Charlotte, N.C.,-based wine company, announced a merger agreement that will lead to Notes Live taking Fresh Vine’s place on the New York Stock Exchange.
In effect, Notes Live now will accelerate its goal of becoming a publicly traded company, said founder, chairman and CEO J.W. Roth, who’s previously talked about his desire to go public.
As it grows and expands to other markets, becoming a public company would help Notes Live raise additional capital, attract more investors and allow its existing private shareholders to sell publicly traded stock for cash, he said.
“It’s a mechanism for Notes Live to become a public company,” Roth said in an interview. “And we’re becoming a public company via a merger with Fresh Vine.”