Several Leases Terminated Preceding Sand Hill Renovation

By John Voket

Last April, Jiggy Kothari, the owner of Photoland in Newtown’s Sand Hill Plaza, began sending letters to his landlord in anticipation of renewing his lease at the South Main Street shopping center. He followed up with phone calls during the following weeks and dispatched another letter in July, knowing his lease was due to expire on September 30.

He stepped up his calls in August, but said he continued to receive no replies from the plaza’s property management company, Boston-based Edens & Avant. And when he finally saw a letter from the company in late September, he thought that he had finally received his lease option renewal terms.

He was shocked when he opened the envelope and discovered that not only was his lease being terminated, but a lawyer representing the property manager stated that he had to vacate the store by November 1 or face a 200 percent increase in his monthly rent.

“The letter arrived on September 30, the day my lease was set to expire,” Mr Kothari told The Bee Tuesday as he readied the photo processing and framing business for a quick going out of business sale.

His story is similar to at least a half-dozen other small “mom and pop” and minority-owned businesses that are among numerous retail tenants at Sand Hill Plaza facing lease termination in the coming months.

According to Newtown Development Director Elizabeth Stocker, she was recently informed that the landlords had “long-term plans to phase out the mall [interior retail] areas of the plaza.”

“I was told that basically, the mall was not an effective use of retail space,” Ms Stocker said.

She said she first learned of the action when she was contacted by Julie and Channa Yin, the Cambodian-born owners of a dry cleaning and alterations business in the plaza who received a similar notice. The Yins were fortunate to locate an open rent further up Route 25 in the Village Square plaza, although the space is several hundred square feet smaller and substantially more expensive.

Unfortunately, Mr Kothari was unable to find suitable space in Newtown close to his current location, and was forced to leave Newtown, taking a space at Monroe’s Tollgate Plaza.

“I really wanted to stay in Newtown,” Mr Kothari said. “But there is a scarcity of space and the rates are all much higher than I was paying here.”

Christie Lee, who operates one of her two nail salons at Sand Hill Plaza, was even more incensed when she received her lease termination notice. After nine successful years at the center, she was given until March 30, 2006, to vacate the space.

But Ms Lee said she is facing a substantially larger financial challenge than paying a potentially higher rent at a new location. Last spring, she sought and received permission from the landlord to renovate her business.

She suspects that the landlord knew that her lease termination was pending at the time, but did not suggest that she should postpone the $60,000 investment Ms Lee said she made renovating the Newtown salon.

“I was planning and saving for this work for four years,” she said. “I just finished a full renovation from floor to ceiling. If I knew [the lease termination] was going to happen, I wouldn’t have spent the money.

“Why weren’t the landlords honest about it?” she asked.

Ms Lee’s story is similar to other tenants, saying she worked 12–15 hour days, sometimes for weeks at a time, building her reputation and client base. But in the past few days, she has spent hours calling and driving up and down Route 25 looking for another space.

“I’m paying about $22 per square foot now, but the best rate I got at another location was $39,” she said. Ms Lee said that she also found another slightly less expensive space, but it was too close to a competing business.

“I don’t want to hurt another small business person by moving too close,” she said. “But if I don’t find a place, I will have employees that will be out of a job.”

Rolando Axilote, the owner of El Coyote Mexican Restaurant, is also primarily concerned for his employees. While he wanted to assure his customers that he would remain open until the final day of his lease, he was resigned to finding another Newtown location if he exhausted all legal means to stay at Sand Hill.

“I’m not happy with the idea of moving,” Mr Axilote said. “Even if I got a new space in this plaza, a move would take one or two months. What will happen to all my workers?”

Ella Jurgielewicz who owns the UPS Store franchise along with her husband, Jan, said as soon as she received her lease termination notice, she contacted the developers of a new South Main Street Plaza scheduled to open just south of Sand Hill Plaza in 2006. Unfortunately, she was told that space will not be ready to coincide with her March 30 termination.

“I would stay here if they offered me another space,” Ms Jurgielewicz said. “And the new plaza isn’t scheduled to open until summertime. I can’t afford to go out of business for two months waiting for new space.”

She said it would be nice if town officials could help in whatever way possible to expedite the new plaza’s opening, but First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said there was little the town could do.

“I’m very disappointed with the situation but the town can’t do much more than help connect displaced business owners to other landlords in town with available space,” Mr Rosenthal said. “All of these businesses seem to fit at that location. They always seem to be busy and they provide the kinds of services that are convenient to residents in the area.”

The first selectman committed to doing whatever he could to help any displaced business stay in Newtown. According to sources in the plaza, other businesses facing lease termination include Mortgage Force, United Studios of Self-Defense, Curves, H&R Block, and all other stores in the mall area east of TJ Maxx.

Despite her luck at finding a new space, the initial prospect of relocating was almost too much for Ms Yin.

“After I got the notice, customers would come into the store and find me in the back room crying,” she said. “But since I moved, I already had 60 of my regular customers come in, and seven new ones — in one week! I decided to stay in business and pay more because I love my customers and they are so supportive coming in and bringing gifts and flowers.”

Ms Yin said in the end, she was most upset by the callousness of the plaza operators.

“I was ten years in Sand Hill, working to make a place for myself. After seven years, I finally started to be profitable and always paid my rent on time or early,” she said with a sad smile. “When I got the notice I tried to get someone at the landlord’s office to help me move in the same plaza, but they never even returned my calls.”