Future of Croc Building in Doubt

Remember when The Crocodile Cafe closed unexpectedly in December? Remember how up in arms everyone got, yelling about how likely it was that yet more new condos would be the result?

Well the future of The Crocodile Cafe wasn't known then and still isn't known now, according to the PI:

Groupee Inc., a privately held Seattle-based Internet software company, has withdrawn its application for a restaurant and lounge license at the site, said Susan Reams, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Liquor Control Board.

The rest of the article is pretty scarce on details since no one involved is talking, but allow us to hazard a guess as to what happened.

Groupee is a social-networking/new-media company that "bring[s] fans closer to each other and to artists through exclusive content, user-generated reviews, real-world venues, and all of the features you expect of a social network." The site is so new though that to sign up, you need an invite from someone. So we're thinking that the economic downturn the country is going through gave the company's investors (or the company itself) cold feet and they were forced to back out of investing in a brick-and-mortar space and all the overhead they come with.

The idea seems plausible to us because combining a social-networking site with a real-world venue seems a bit too similar to all those Internet companies like Kozmo that failed when the Internet bubble burst.

So what's next for The Croc? We still like the idea floated on Line Out of Seattle music lovers banding together and turning The Croc into a live-music coop. Whatever happened to that?

Man, those windows were cool though, huh? We hope they survive. Thanks for adding a shot of them to the Seattlest Flickr Pool, Todd Sackman