By James Fanelli, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The troubled SoHo club that was the scene of the bottle-hurling brawl between Chris Brown and Drake's posses has accused the musicians of ruining its reputation and torpedoing a $4 million deal to expand its brand around the country.
The owner of Greenhouse is suing Brown and Drake for $16 million, claiming they ordered their beefy security teams to throw "highball glasses laden with alcohol" and shatter "the handles of bottles of spirits to use as makeshift knives" during the June 14 melee.
Entertainment Enterprises, which is registered to club owner Jon Bakhshi, filed the lawsuit in Manhattan Civil Supreme Court Tuesday, saying it owns the federal trademark to "Greenhouse."
Before the June 14 dust-up, Entertainment Enterprises had reached an "agreement-in-principle" with another business to license the Greenhouse name and brand to nightclubs around the country, the lawsuit says.
"[The business] was primarily interested in the cachet and prestige associated with the Greenhouse marks," the lawsuit says.
But Entertainment Enterprises claims the interested party called off the deal when it learned of the musicians' melee, "explaining that the Greenhouse marks were now associated with the kind of violent, life-threatening riot engaged in by [Brown and Drake], and that they were now worthless."
The lawsuit claims both Brown and Drake had arrived at Greenhouse's sister club, W.i.P., with an entourage of "at least 15 heavily built men trained and/or experienced in hand-to-hand and weapons combat."
The musicians' romantic rivalry over pop star Rihanna allegedly sparked the brawl. Brown and Drake "crossed paths in one of the nightclubs and began to fight violently with each other" and ordered their boozed-up crews to join in, the lawsuit says.
The flying bottles "terrorized patrons," who ducked for cover behind each other and shielded themselves with tables and banquettes, the lawsuit says.
Nearly two dozen people were hurt in the rampage. Several injured club-goers have sued Greenhouse, including NBA star Tony Parker, who is seeking $20 million after his eye was hit with a shard of glass.
In the brawl's aftermath, the NYPD temporarily shut down Greenhouse and W.i.P. The clubs, which are in the same building, re-opened after agreeing to pay a fine and hire more security.
Greenhouse has previously been fined by the State Liquor Authority for other fights and bad behavior at their club.
A lawyer for Entertainment Enterprises did not immediately return a call for comment. Representatives for Brown and Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Drake Graham, did not respond to requests for comment.