Not QUITE work related, but tales of a bad landlord...

[bean]

So a few days ago I went by a shopping strip down the street from my apartment to get some food...

Get to Berryhill Baja Grill, wait, door's locked? Oh nice, a scary notice in the window saying the landlord has changed the locks and alarm system, entry is trespass, etc. Okay, so they fell behind on their rent, times are tough, companies go under... oh well. Except Berryhill is a very, very busy restaurant, upscale for "casual", and damn good food. The waits are usually 30+ minutes on weeknights for a table. And at least in Texas, a locked out tenant has the full right to demand the landlord release their property as long as it's not part of the building, at any hour, and the letter basically said you have 2 hours per weekday to contact us and we may take up to 2 working days to respond. I can't even imagine how much rotten food is in their coolers, though it appeared that the LL either left the power on or had it transferred (neon signs still lit up inside).

So I go to another place I like in the same shopping strip. Same notice on the window.

Okay.. two at once?

The third and fourth place I went to at the same strip (it's mostly fast food or casual dining, roughly 13-14 storefronts) had the exact same notices in their window. And a tenant that moved out 6 months ago (ice cream shop) went as far as to put a nasty letter in the window stating the landlord was unreasonable and not to lease from them, that letter is still in that shop's window.

Congrats strip mall owner, you've shut down the most popular businesses in your center, your only remaining tenants are a title company, cigar shop, and a nearly always empty restaurant that has horrible food. And this is a very upscale area where I'm sure a huge chunk of your income goes toward property taxes. Good job sir, bravo! You also have ZERO signage for the place, and it's kinda hard to see from the street. Berryhill easily brought in at least 90% of the business in that strip mall.

Something tells me locking out roughly 3/4 of your tenants isn't the best idea. Always wondered why that center had such high turnover, now I know...

edit: oddly, Berryhill's website is still taking orders, and the phone is still connected, though it only gives a recording stating the mailbox is full. It's been 3 weeks.

[Crossbow]

Just out of curiosity, any idea how old the strip mall building(s) is/are?

I wouldn't be surprised to find the owner wants to rebuild and this is a BS way of breaking his tenants' leases...

[protege]

Ugh. That sounds *exactly* like the mall in Washington, PA. Whoever owned it...should be shot. Several years back, they got the brilliant idea of turning a fully-enclosed, recently-remodeled, shopping mall...into a strip mall. To accomplish this feat, they decided to squeeze their smaller retailers by jacking up rents...and then not maintaining the roofs or 'infrastructure' in the larger stores and common areas.

Eventually, the plan worked--they'd driven out all of the tenants--the hobby shop, the fabric stores, barber shop, book store, the JC Penny that had been there since the place opened in the 1960s Penny's was actually one of the very last stores to leave the mall. They left, because the place's condition was hurting business. Think about it--would *you* shop in a mall that had little heat during the winter, litter on the floors, and flickering lights?

Several years on, the strip mall hasn't happened. Seems that the deal fell apart from a lack of tenants. They can't get new tenants...because all of the mall's problems were heavily covered in the local paper. Now the mall owner, is stuck with a building they can't sell, and one that they can't afford to knock down. Serves the bastards right.

[Sliceanddice]

maybe hes trying to sell the building kicking out the people who might not be willing to sell there leases and waiting for the less used businesses to close shop?