The sign out in front of the Town Center at Timber Springs, presenting to potential customers a first impression of the new plaza on Avalon Park Boulevard, is in pieces and disrepair. In October, four stores in the shopping center were broken into on the same night, with offenders forcing their way through the back doors of the businesses, ransacking the cash registers.
A few weeks ago a gang fight broke out near the Wal- Mart Neighborhood Market, where groups of teens have been known to loiter. Tenants cite these instances as evidence of a lack of proper maintenance and oversight, but their cries go unheard. Instead, what these small businesses receive for their complaints is a continuing series of rent increases.
“I know there’s a downturn in the economy, but I find my rent going up $1,000 without a way of stopping it, and it makes me feel like I’m without a lifeline,” said Marc Chapkis, a dentist at Family and Cosmetic Dentistry at Avalon. “Small businesses are being squeezed by big corporations that bought in 2004 and 2005 when things were going good.
No one is saying there is not a need for maintenance fees, but not at this rate of increase, and by so much.” When he opened his office one year ago the rent was $4,000 a month. Since then he has seen his monthly payments balloon to $5,099.
For any small business, the first year is critical to survival as they go about the challenging task of attracting new customers and developing a positive cash flow. Town Center at Timber Springs tenants say the repeated rent hikes don’t help. Every few months the merchants receive an incremental increase in the rent and additional charges for insurance, common area maintenance and management fees. But Chapkis doesn’t see any return on his rising bills.
“I don’t see any maintenance improvements at all. The multiple sign for the center has been broken for months,” he said. “The bottom line is this is going to become an empty plaza.” In contrast, the Family and Cosmetic Dentistry office in Vista Lakes Village Town Center has not received a single rent increase over the past year. A similar story is told by James Gonzalez, the owner of Dragon Karate Academy, which has a location at Timber Springs and in the Woodbury shopping plaza, as well as 40 more karate schools across the country.
Since moving into Town Center at Timber Springs in October, he too saw his rent boosted by $400, but has refused to pay saying it is excessive and unwarranted. Meanwhile, at his Woodbury Road storefront, he has had just one rent hike imposed during the last 18 months, an annual increase that was clearly stipulated in his lease beforehand. “I think they are being taken advantage of,” Gonzalez said of his fellow tenants at Timber Springs. “It’s really, really hard on small businesses.”
In addition, he said the local management company, Continental Real Estate Companies (CREC), is doing nothing to help the center. “They really don’t maintain it. It seems like the management company just doesn’t care,” he said. “Trash piles up behind the units and that’s where it stays, not for days but weeks. That’s really frustrating.” Moreover, he has trouble getting the management company to return calls. Even when he was trying to lease space, it took four months for him to track down CREC and finalize a lease.
CREC didn’t seem interested; now he wishes he wasn’t either. “I should have known something then,” he lamented. “The rent is just astronomical for this area. You can’t budget a business when things change from month to month.” The defense rests Several merchants portrayed the owner, SCI Real Estate Investments, as a holding company that is only interested in selling the property at a profit, providing them little incentive to satisfy tenants’ concerns. SCI did not respond to interview requests and CREC also declined to comment.
But the SCI Web site has the 35,105-square-foot Town Center at Timber Springs listed among properties that are on the active market. The Southern California-based corporation, a real estate principal with a portfolio valued at over $1.8 billion worth of closed fractional-deed real estate, boasts more than 150 property acquisitions nationwide since its founding in 1994. SCI purchased the Town Center at Timber Springs in September 2006 from Weingarten Realty Investors, which opened the plaza earlier that year.
Although a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market anchors the center, the grocery store is separate and not owned by SCI. Kathy Cabrera has operated the Peter Jacobs Salon and Spa in the Timber Springs plaza for 14 months. During that time, her business is steadily gaining a clientele. But her soaring leasing costs are outpacing the growth of her customer base. And she is not alone. “In general business is good at the center, but we are all new businesses,” she said.
“It would be nice if they give us a break. Stores are going to start closing one by one, mark my words.” The rent hikes are exorbitant, she said, given the current economic climate, reflected by the number of foreclosures and crime in the area. “There are a lot of kids hanging out by Wal-Mart,” she said. Norbert and Maria Rivera also have seen groups of teens sitting at tables outside of Wal-Mart, just across from their own business, Avalon Christian Store.
And they have observed something more. “I’ve seen them coming out of Wal- Mart with things that they didn’t pay for,” said Norbert. “I talk to them and tell them, ‘God doesn’t want you to do that.’” While their store also is struggling to make the rent, the couple is not considering relocating their store. Besides, they have an ironclad three-year lease. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said. So the Riveras continue to upkeep their store.
At their own expense, the couple is creating a “prayer wall” in back, having painters use textured paint to depict a stone wall where visitors can pray. They are also adding a new sign in front of their pristine store, “Prayer Clinic: Walk-Ins Welcome.” During these difficult times, the couple also relies on prayer for strength and guidance, practicing what they preach. “People need to pray,” Norbert said. “We’ve been praying for the business center and the community.”
