Usher sues investors to recover US$700,000 he lent to buy property for ‘Homage ATL’

Usher arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif.

ATLANTA — The music artist and entertainment executive Usher is suing a group of investors who have been trying to open a new restaurant and lounge in Atlanta.

Usher Raymond IV lent US$1.7 million to the investor group toward the purchase of property for the planned Homage ATL, his lawyers said in a lawsuit filed recently in Atlanta.

In late 2024, three men approached Usher with their plan to open the restaurant and lounge, which involved the purchase of a commercial property in the city’s Buckhead neighborhood, the lawsuit states. Usher declined to become an investor in Homage ATL, but he agreed to loan the group $1.7 million toward purchasing the property.

The money had been sent to the trust account of Atlanta lawyer Alcide Honoré, who represented some of the investors and is named as a defendant in the lawsuit. After the deal never materialized, Usher requested that his money be returned. He was repaid $1 million in August, but communication then broke down and he has been unable to collect the remaining $700,000, the lawsuit states.

Honore on Wednesday referred questions to his attorney, Clifford Hardwick IV.

“I have no substantive comment regarding a matter that is in litigation,” Hardwick said in an email to The Associated Press. “However, I am extremely confident that Mr. Honore will be vindicated as to any civil liability in this case.”

One of the defendants named in the lawsuit, record producer and songwriter Bryan-Michael Cox, said on Instagram that he is “a passive minority shareholder” in one of the companies involved. “While I’m unable to share more details right now, I want to make one thing absolutely clear: my 27-year friendship with Usher remains fully intact.”

Two other men in the investment group, both from metro Atlanta, are also named as defendants. No lawyers for them were listed in the court records at this early stage of the lawsuit.