City to Intercede in Janss Dispute
Hoping to sort out differences between management and merchants who believe they are being forced out of the shopping center, Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski and other Thousand Oaks city leaders are set to meet today with the operators of the Janss Marketplace.
But for Joe Ehret of Nicki’s Coffee Espressions, the small business owner who originally brought the merchants’ complaints to the City Council, the meeting will be too little, too late.
Ehret told the council Tuesday night that he and his wife are fed up with the shopping center’s new owners, Goldman Sachs. They have decided to move out in mid-June rather than accept a new lease they have been offered, which would have doubled their rent and required the seniors to invest about $60,000 to spruce up their business, he said.
“It is just another way of forcing us out of the mall,” Ehret said.
Tenants at the marketplace are upset because they believe Goldman Sachs, which purchased the mall last year, and its management company, Westfield Corp. of Los Angeles, violated an agreement that the previous owners, the Janss family, made with the city.
Representatives of Westfield Corp. did not return phone calls for comment.
Thousand Oaks issued bonds to provide upfront cash for a $30-million expansion of the Janss Marketplace in 1993, and as part of that deal, the city was granted an assurance that existing merchants would be allowed to remain.
Councilwoman Elois Zeanah this week asked city officials to explore what legal options Thousand Oaks has. But City Atty. Mark Sellers said the agreement between the city and the owners in no way prevented the mall from raising rents, adding that an increase should have been no surprise, considering the mall has undergone a major renovation.
And Mayor Andy Fox said it has become clear to him that the city has little authority in the matter, which is essentially a landlord-tenant dispute.
“The reality is that any consideration given to the city will be just that--consideration,” Fox said. “ . . . Before we start talking tough and talking lawsuits, we have to realize that there is very little the council can do.”
