By: Louis Dupuis
If you have ever ventured out past King’s Street and farther past the Labor Union and construction work site, you may have seen nightclubs, buildings and more.
It almost seems like there’s money in Vodou, separating the chaff from the grain or the pearls from the mud that is the downbeat, violent and disordered city that is Hathian’s downtown district. In fact, head in any direction from downtown Hathian, to Laveau, Rougarou, to Black Bottom and Devil’s Pocket and you will clearly see derelict buildings, neglected roads, surrounded by crumbling infrastructure as you enjoy taking a potholed drive just about anywhere in those parishes. But not in Vodou.
Clearly, the money isn’t in the downtown sector. It’s out here in Vodou.
But who makes their buck bang out here? And how?
This is part one of an investigative series that aims to tackle these questions and ‘follow the money’ to find out more about the city within the city, a different kind, ‘unseen’ by most except for the fortunate few. For instance: Why does this particular parish have nicer infrastructure? Who is behind the more upscale developments here? And who owns this lavish (and very secure) spot:
A Roar
As well as this beautiful and ludicrously pricey yacht, floating in their back yard?
The latter would seem to belong to the Lions Holding Group, a business organization that seems to possess several interesting enterprises out in Rougarou, with an LLW office on Hathian’s main road, Hathian Highway, and one Luxure Nightclub, while also operating at Hathians port under Lions Logistics Warehouses.
A trip to the office revealed that LLW deals in import and export of goods in and out of Hathian. The type of cargo that they handle depends on their clientele, but they do ship globally and a little snooping around brings up the CEOs of LLW and by association, linked to Lions Group Holding:
Mr. Bowen MacRieve and Ashlee Redenblack.
Mayor Boxer and the city council declined to comment about the discrepancy in Hathian’s districts, but one council member was overheard muttering:
“These people pay taxes, what can I say? You get what you pay for, when you actually pay for it…”
Lions Holding Group assets all appear to be legitimate, and the organization itself has been involved in charity work in Hathian in the past as our links above show. They’ve also got involved in medical trials before and our editor, Daiyu Tang, seems to have struck up a relationship with them in so far as our coverage has generally been positive. Should it be?
MacRieve and Redenblack also funded a carnival at a community event a while back, stating that they loved to give back to the city where they have made their success. They do not appear to be too visible these days or too vocal, perhaps wanting to live quieter lives-or for their own reasons, finding discretion suits them better.
And while all of this appears to be positive PR for the organization, the discrepancies between the parishes still exist in ways that cannot be ignored when anyone enters Laveau or Hathian’s downtown, to Rougarou, only to find a different type of city in Vodou.
Just what kind of influence and sway this organization and the one other main player, the owner/owners of Vice City Nightclub, in Vodou hold with Mayor Boxer and the city council remains something that City Hall will not comment about, but the glaring disparity is easily visible so perhaps what hasn’t been said does not need to be-especially when the reality can be experienced and accessed by all.
We’ll do some more digging…
