Breach or restaurant lease by the city.

[yuppiefood]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? VA
I own 2 restaurants and lease a place in a city run food court in VA.

I singed a 3 year lease at the food court about 15 months ago. At that time the lease said we had to be open for business 45 hours a week between the hours of 11 am to 7 pm (building open 7 days a week).

With our customer base we do most of our business from that location between 10 am and 5:00 pm Monday through Saturday. Our hours are 10 am to 7 pm Monday through Friday and 10 am to 5 pm on Saturdays. We don't make any money after 5 pm any day of the week on nothing on Sunday if we open. I do not want to change our business and jeopardize our customer base.

The city has changed the lease to state you must be open from 11 am to 6 pm 7 days a week. I refuse to sing the new lease and have been going round after round with the city about this. A few of the other owners have singed the lease, but a few have not done so. The few that are open on Sundays say they all most break even after food, utility, and labor cost.

My lawyer and I have tried to work with the city, but they just do not care. We sent the city a no fault to break the lease (must be singed, notarized, and returned in 14 days) with 90 days to vacate. When the letter was sent I had the owner of a building holding it for me biased on the city’s decision. The city singed and returned the letter, but took 21 days. At that point someone else had put a contract on the building we were going to buy.

At this point the city wants us out by 4-10-13 or wants us to be open 11 am to 7 pm 7 days a week. I was told today that they were going to start the eviction process on Monday if we do not sing the new contract or sing there agreement to vacate on 4-10-13 unless I sign one of them tomorrow (1-25-13).


I understand that everything needs to be run though my lawyer, but at this point some one else thoughts would be nice.
Do they have legal grounds to change the lease?
With the city not singing and returning the paperwork in 14 days as required by the agreement than it is worthless right?
With out breaking the rules of the lease I singed are they able to evict us?
Would you call the local news paper and news stations to do a story about this?
If so at what point would you do it?

 

[Zigner]

These are questions for your attorney. Really.

 

[yuppiefood]

Thank you.
I do understand that questions like this should and need to go through my lawyer. At this point I am looking for a second opinion.

He has told me that they have no legal grounds to do anything unless I sign the new paperwork or I breach the original lease.

When I asked him about going to the news, he says it would be better to put it off till they make the next step. But at this point with the emails and letters they have sent there is plenty to show what is happening.

 

[Zigner]

Thank you.
I do understand that questions like this should and need to go through my lawyer. At this point I am looking for a second opinion.

He has told me that they have no legal grounds to do anything unless I sign the new paperwork or I breach the original lease.

When I asked him about going to the news, he says it would be better to put it off till they make the next step. But at this point with the emails and letters they have sent there is plenty to show what is happening.

The "second opinion" is that a bunch of random internet stranger will not (CAN NOT) give better advice than your attorney because your attorney is fully immersed in all aspects of the matter.

 

[Mass_Shyster]

Would you call the local news paper and news stations to do a story about this?

Not if my lawyer told me not to.

If so at what point would you do it?

When my lawyer said it was OK.

Your lawyer is probably not interested in the court of public opinion, s/he is probably more interested in preserving your legal rights in a court of law (or equity).

If you go to the papers, it may give the city cause to evict you, depending on the terms of the lease, and how the newspapers may mis-quote you.

Listen to your lawyer.

 

[xylene]

I'm not sure how much you are really hurt by going along with the city's plan.

 

[yuppiefood]

Good point Zigner thank you.

Stevef I'm not planing on just running to the news paper or doing anything with out my lawyer. But at the same time I'm just pissed at the amount of junk / trash they want to put us through. If I would of known that they wanted us to be open 7 days a week I would of never singed a lease with them.

Xylene to just go along with the city it would add a weekly cost of; labor 22 hours, food waste $100, insurance $4 (liability), and $45 utilities (electric / gas). To me the labor is the big one. It's hard to find someone that wants to work and is a good worker. With it just being 22 hours part is hard to hire for and if I went with full time than I would have to find someone that is willing to work between 2 different stores. After taxes a $10 an hour worker ends up costing $16 an hour and $21 with health insurance.
So I’m looking at $480 to $600 in cost a week just to be open for them. The best we have done on a Sunday there was around $400. Our food cost is 25% to 30% on most stuff. So we might be able to put $300 in to the extra $480 to $600 it's going to cost me to be open each week.
But hold up. We must also think about ALL the food court being open. So there would be the same amount of people with more choices. Unless a huge health group or a bunch of vegetarians come in than most likely we will not be a top choice for them to eat.
I would guess it would cost me $14,000 ish a year if I’m lucky.

 

[xylene]

I had a great response, but then I realized you don't need legal help to figure out why your vegetarian business in suburban VA is failing.


(The answer is either your market is too small or you are not properly marketing your specialty food business...)

 

[yuppiefood]

I will stand there all day long and let you go at it with the veg head jokes or what ever ones you have. We carter to one group of people and we do it very well. Yes I know it's a tinny market, but it comes down to location, speed, choices (yes I know that's more jokes), and consistency that we have it down to an art.

Our main location that has the bakery averages 1,300 customers a day Monday through Friday 5 am to 9 pm. Average 700 customers a day Saturday and Sunday 6 am to 9pm. Average week of 30 catering jobs. I know time for more jokes; half of our catering jobs we are setting up next to a different company with “real food”.

Our second location averages 800 customers a day Monday through Friday 5:00 am to 6 pm. Closed the weekend.

The market building averages 650 customers a day Monday through Friday 10 am to 7pm. Average 425 customers Saturday 10 am to 5pm.


I would like to say we are not failing at all. We do not see the why we should have to open our doors when there will be no customers to only take a loss for the day. Most of our customers at the market building are office staff from a few blocks away. The city has not done anything to bring people into the city on the weekend and we all know that veg head food will not do it. I know there is more jokes that are due.

At the end of the day we will make money at the market building with the terms in the lease as singed. If the city wants us to be open 7 days a week they should of put it in the lease or bring more people into the city on Sundays; if there are people at least a few of them will eat our food.