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Uploaded: Thursday, August 23, 2012, 1:58 PM
Bar owner battles with new landlord
Owner of preschool says he is just trying to clean up shopping center
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by Nick Veronin
Mountain View Voice Staff
A battle continues to ferment in a strip mall between a bar owner, a neighboring acupuncturist and their preschool-owning landlord.
Two tenants of Sylvan Plaza, a strip mall on the southern edge of Mountain View, claim their landlord is using deceitful tactics in order to force them out of their units before their leases end. Not so, according to the landlord and his lawyer, who say the issue has been blown out of proportion and is all part of a campaign of character assassination.
"I think they're using the press here as almost the equivalent of their legal representative to get their way," said Mark S. Carlquist, the attorney representing landlord Cyrus Parvini. "This is a matter of contract. It's just that simple."
Michelle Piao, owner of The Office Bar in Sylvan Plaza, located at 820 E. El Camino Real, said that Parvini is not respecting the terms of her lease, which expires in October 2014. Her most serious accusation is that Parvini attempted to trick her husband into signing a lease termination agreement by telling him that his wife had already signed the document, when she had not. Parvini and his lawyer vehemently denied this.
"I'm a very honest person," Parvini said. "I don't lie and I don't cheat anybody."
Parvini did not deny taking other actions, but said that the owner of The Office is misrepresenting them.
For example, Parvini does not dispute that he told Piao she could no longer hold barbeques on weekends in front of the bar, or that he took away the chairs she had out front for her patrons. According to Piao they are intended to drive away her patrons and encourage her to accept an unfair and premature lease termination agreement.
The way Parvini sees it, he is just disallowing a practice that shouldn't have been allowed in the first place -- one which encourages people, who have often had too much to drink, to hang around outside the bar.
Piao also said Parvini has been trying to make life hard for the acupuncture and massage business located next door to the bar. Piao, who has invested in the neighboring business, said Parvini has repeatedly sent city inspectors to the business in an effort to catch the shop violating health codes.
"He said our business and her business are not good for children, so that's why they want us to leave," said acupuncturist James Zhang.
Piao claims the landlord is doing this because he wants to expand Little Prodigy Preschool into several empty units in the shopping center. She said he wants the acupuncture and massage shop out to make way for the preschool, and he wants the bar gone, because it serves alcohol.
On the contrary, Carlquist and Parvini said, they have offered to relocate the acupuncturist within the complex and there is nothing they can find in city code that would prohibit them from locating a preschool next to a bar, although it has yet to be determined if the city would allow this.
If Parvini has been stricter on his tenants than they are used to, it is simply because he is enforcing the rules of the lease, said Carlquist, who described the previous landlord as "absentee." Parvini purchased the shopping center last year.
"Under the prior ownership, if we paid our rent we never heard anything," Carlquist said, paraphrasing what he perceives to be at the root of Piao's complaint. Now that Parvini is trying to clean up the the complex, the bar's ownership is pushing back. "You've got a change of the guard, and this guard is trying to change things."
Though it does not appear that The Office's lease agreement -- provided to the Voice by Piao -- explicitly prohibits grilling outside the bar, Carlquist has argued that the lease does require all bar-related activities to be conducted inside.
The issue with the bar, according to Carlquist, is not a potential conflict with the preschool but that the bar is a source of public drunkenness, public urination and other bad behavior.
On a recent Friday afternoon, several of the bar's patrons say the accusations are trumped up. The weekend barbeques have been a longstanding tradition at The Office, according to bartender, Jena Gillin, who said she feels the bar is being unfairly targeted.
Ralph Haughton, a regular at The Office, said he can always count on seeing a friendly face when he drops by for a drink. He said he thinks of many of the bar's regulars as his "family." When he found out that the regular weekend barbeques would no longer be allowed, he said it felt like a personal attack. "I feel like we're the redheaded stepchildren in here."Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by kathy, a resident of the Sylvan Park neighborhood, on Aug 23, 2012 at 2:38 pm Would be happy to see that entire strip mall knocked down and replaced with housing or a Peet's or something that looks more attractive than the sorry collection of tenants currently occupying that space. The Office bar has had incidents in the past, case in point Web Link and the odd collection mis-matched chairs in front was an eyesore. The 'massage' business has had a hand written sign since opening last year which looks really tacky. The dry cleaner used to have racks of clothes out front on the sidewalk (not sure if that is still the case). Clearly the landlord does not require his tenants to maintain their properties. Thanks to this article we now know who owns the property, we can direct our complaints directly to him.
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Posted by Rick, a resident of the Sylvan Park neighborhood, on Aug 23, 2012 at 2:51 pm This is what happens when ownership changes. The bar people have to understand that the new owners are not the old ones. The new owners have a right to clean up the shopping center which needs it. Not sure a massage parlor with a creepy sign is appropriate next to a children's learning center. This little mall is way overdue for a makeover. I know I speak for many neighbors in our area...would like to see that liquor store gone too!! It attracts a bad element and the whole standing outside routine.
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Posted by Rex, a resident of the Rex Manor neighborhood, on Aug 23, 2012 at 3:34 pm REALLY MV VOICE..."it does not appear that The Office's lease agreement...explicitly prohibits grilling outside the bar" so its OK? I guess since the MV Voice's lease doesn't say anything about "public drunkenness, public urination and other bad behavior" its OK to do it in the MV Voice's lobby.
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Posted by Croc Dundee, a resident of another community, on Aug 23, 2012 at 3:36 pm If the former owner of the center allowed barbeques despite lease language forbidding it, then the new owner of the center may not have the right to now enforce the previously unenforced rule. This may be an instance of the buyer not doing sufficient due diligence prior to buying the property.
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Posted by Dave, a resident of the Sylvan Park neighborhood, on Aug 23, 2012 at 3:48 pm I drive by this strip mall twice a day and I live nearby. I will be happy when this mall is leveled and rebuilt to look clean and modern. It's an awful, useless eyesore.
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Posted by haoleboy, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Aug 24, 2012 at 6:19 am Too bad the city can't hire this guy to go after some of the downtown cesspools!
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Posted by Bogaigh, a resident of the Cuesta Park neighborhood, on Aug 24, 2012 at 8:55 am Applause to Mr. Parvini and what he is trying to accomplish.
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Posted by Miss Lexicon, a resident of the Cuesta Park neighborhood, on Aug 24, 2012 at 9:09 am Does the battle ferment or foment?
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Posted by anon, a resident of the Cuernavaca neighborhood, on Aug 24, 2012 at 12:27 pm There no provisions in the City Code that would prohibit opening a preschool next to a bar? Maybe because the drafters of the code could never have imagined such a ridiculous circumstance would arise! What a bad business decision on the part of the preschool owner. So many parents are going to be put off this school by this location. Seems like he took a gamble on this property by betting on being able to force his undesirable tenants out.
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Posted by PQ, a resident of another community, on Aug 24, 2012 at 3:57 pm The new buyer is prefectly within his/her rights in enforcing the "four corners" of the lease; i.e., there is NO grandfather clause or estopples that would allow BBQs to continue as Mr. Croc states.
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Posted by John C., a resident of the Sylvan Park neighborhood, on Aug 25, 2012 at 3:37 pm This shopping center was dirty for the past few years and attracting drunk and homeless people. Since a few weeks ago I see no homeless or drunk and it looks clean and safe. This neighborhood needs no Bar so thanks to the new owner for improving this shopping center.
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Posted by A Grandma, a resident of another community, on Aug 25, 2012 at 7:44 pm I don't live in Mountain View so I can't take sides on this issue. But I do have one concern of my own regarding the pre-school. It all came to light when Palo Alto opened the new Palo Alto Preschool facing the very busy El Camino Real. It is only a sidewalk away from the street and certain death for a small child who manages to open it's door and wander away. I once was a pre-school teacher and have three adorable grand children. It pains me and scares me every time I drive past this pre-school. With all the other locations this school could have been put.... WHY??? did they choose to put children in such danger???
And it has nothing to do with stranger danger.. or bars with drunks.
Just my thoughts...
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Posted by @Rex, a resident of the Cuesta Park neighborhood, on Aug 26, 2012 at 12:09 pm As always, you guys are being too hard on the MV Voice. You say:
"REALLY MV VOICE..."it does not appear that The Office's lease agreement...explicitly prohibits grilling outside the bar" so its OK?" blah blah blah
Did you fail to read the rest of the sentence written in the article, or it is OK to you to only read 1/2 of it and then respond in kind.
The sentence was specifically talking about the fact that the landlord's lawyer stated, "the lease does require all bar-related activities to be conducted inside".
The MV Voice is only commenting on that - they did not take a stand as to whether it was a good idea or not. JUST that the lease they saw does not say that and the lawyer says it does.
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Posted by Oh Boy, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Aug 26, 2012 at 12:13 pm Personally, don't have much opinion either way. It is he said, she said.
However, this blog is another example of residents buying their houses, then complaining about what is there. You bought your house and that strip mall was there. NOW, you want to say how horrible it is and it should be demolished because it is an eyesore. Well, you probably paid a bit less for your house if it was an eyesore...now you need to live with it. Not really interested in your whining.
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