Another local business steps up to help those impacted by event venue closure

COLUMBIA, Md. — It started off as a sad story, but it’s beginning to look like it might have a happy ending.

WMAR-2 News reported a few weeks ago that Bleues on the Water in Glen Burnie had gone out of business.

The owner filed for bankruptcy, and told clients who had weddings and celebrations booked there through 2026 – they were out of luck. He couldn’t offer refunds because he used their deposits to keep the business afloat.

“It was terrible. We felt – especially right before Christmas – for people to have lost the deposit, they worked so hard, to try and pivot to find something else -they’ve already picked their date. Some of them might have put out invitations already. I mean, that’s rough,” Staci Samaras told WMAR-2 News’ Elizabeth Worthington.

Samaras and Joshua Butts are the owners of The Collective in Columbia.

The property has both a restaurant called Offshore, an event space called Encore, as well as a waterfront pavilion.

When they heard how people who were looking forward to once in a lifetime celebrations were suddenly out thousands, they felt:

“Heartbroken. Because we know how special events are here and we cater these events every day; we deal with our guests every day, and to just lose that from under you after all the planning, I can’t imagine what that feels like.”

Then, they were inspired. They heard how Two Rivers, a restaurant and venue in Pasadena, was offering to host events for those impacted customers at a greatly discounted rate. They decided to do something similar.

We are gonna waive the additional deposit, so just make a flat $1,000 deposit to hold the date. Then we will do 50% off – we’ll reduce our food and beverage minimums by half,” Samaras explained. “We’ll also, at the end of the event, whatever the total is, we’ll take 10% off of it for the food and beverage.

“It’s important to us that our community knows that we’re here for them,” Butts told WMAR-2 News.

The owners say this is more than just a gesture of goodwill; this is their responsibility to the community they serve.

“We’re in the hospitality business; we’re in the business of people. Without people, we have nothing. This is just an empty room,” Butts said.

If you were impacted by the closure of Bleues on the Water you can reach out to The Collective, provide them with a copy of your contract, and they’ll do whatever they can to work with you on finding a date for your event.