Sanford Nelson sounds like bad news for Eastern Market

[archfan]

I haven't seen or read the contract, but if Hall is on the hook for the $50k, he owes it whether or not he's operating from the building in Eastern Mark-up or somewhere else. I got the impression from the article the increase was until the loan was paid off. The only way out of this for Hall is to file bankruptcy. If he's got a $3k daily cash flow, he's not doing too badly.

We haven't seen the lease, but we know it was written in 2007. In 2007, landlords were writing sweetheart leases so tenants didn't abandon their building. If I were a restaurant negotiating in 2007, I would have made it the owner's responsibility to do maintenance, and probably would have gotten it.

That's backed up by the new owner blaming the bad floor on the tenant - that would be the only way they would owe, if the owner was on the hook for maintenance. Also, when the new owner took over, he promised to do deferred maintenance; why would he promise that if he wasn't responsible for the maintenance?

We only have the new owner's word that the repair will cost $50K. I don't know if $50K is reasonable to repair a floor that the building inspector thinks is okay. But, it does seem like a big enough bill to threaten collection/court if they don't sign the new, higher lease.

[Honky Tonk]

We haven't seen the lease, but we know it was written in 2007. In 2007, landlords were writing sweetheart leases so tenants didn't abandon their building. If I were a restaurant negotiating in 2007, I would have made it the owner's responsibility to do maintenance, and probably would have gotten it.

That's backed up by the new owner blaming the bad floor on the tenant - that would be the only way they would owe, if the owner was on the hook for maintenance. Also, when the new owner took over, he promised to do deferred maintenance; why would he promise that if he wasn't responsible for the maintenance?

We only have the new owner's word that the repair will cost $50K. I don't know if $50K is reasonable to repair a floor that the building inspector thinks is okay. But, it does seem like a big enough bill to threaten collection/court if they don't sign the new, higher lease.

My interpretation from reading the story is the increase is a "payment plan" to pay off the $50k debt, there's no mention of it being a permanent increase. The article is poorly written and omits pertinent facts. Everyone wants to make Detroit great again as long as they're filling their pockets. When the tax abatements run out, the prices go up, and it's time to pay, they want to take their ball and go home.

[softailrider]

I’m sure the flooring in that restaurant was shot when he originally signed that lease, now its no longer usable and one of the parties has to pay. I can’t stand what I have heard about that Nelson guy, if he really wanted to appear to me magnanimous he should offer to split the repair with his tenant. But like others have said the restaurant guy probably wants out anyway.

[swingline]

The Freep's restaurant journalist adds a thoughtful and spot-on piece today. https://www.freep.com/story/entertai...ng/3578203002/ The elephant in the piece, though, is the fact that the cause of Russell Street's closing is largely self-inflicted. The restaurant appears to have squandered a sweetheart lease through 2026 by neglecting kitchen maintenance. Mr. Kurlyandchik slips by that issue in his article. Other than that, the article makes important points about urban redevelopment.

[Richard]

The people over profits concept or mentality pushed in that article is part of the problem.

Without profit there is no people.

It seems like they think that the best route is for the city to take all of the commercial properties and run it like a collective.

One can have thier concept of how things should be but then there is the reality of things.

A couple of other articles delve into the condition of the buildings due to lack of maintenance for many years,brick facades falling off etc.

So the previous owner provided cheap rents as a benefit to the community at the cost of deferred maintenance,in turn sealing it’s fate.

100 year old buildings require a lot of maintenance let alone preventive maintenance and that costs lots of money,repaid by charging rents,add on taxes and utilities it is like anything else,it cost money to do business.

Most go into buisness in order to receive a profit,even if one says I am going to buy a building and fix it up so I can run a non profit,the money to purchase,run and maintain still has to come from somewhere.

How did it work out in the past when investors,the villains,choose not to invest?

In this case the deli owner has a contract with Whole Foods,so is he now going to sell his product to Whole Foods at cost so in turn Whole Foods can sell to the public at cost as a bennift to the community?

Is his new landlord providing free space,are his suppliers providing free products,is the power company providing free power etc.

He said it himself in anger,he could not afford to pay the damages,so the whole working for the collective clearly did not work,somebody somewhere has to pay the bill,things just do not appear out of thin air.

[archfan]

I'm afraid it will soon be time to say goodbye to Eastern Market as it exists. As new investors pay higher prices for real estate there, they need to raise rents dramatically to make dramatic money [[and why else are they there?).

That means the funky little shops and restaurants started by wild eyed, community-building entrepreneurs will be out. If you're paying $25/sq ft, you can't pay living wages, like they did when they were paying $1.08/sq ft. To afford their rent, the new shops will have to find efficient was to grab the suckers, flip them over, shake the money out of their pockets, and send them on their way. It won't happen immediately, and there will be holdouts that own their own building and stick around. But, in a few years, welcome the new Coldstone Creamery Eastern Market - Faneuil Hall on Gratiot.

That's gloomy af, but Detroit could do things. Maybe start [[or license to PPP) farmers markets in some of the old shopping districts that are still in dense areas? The Avenue of Fashion has momentum, but Old Redford could use some help. They would have cheap rents available, to let the wild eyed entrepreneurs make the next Mootown or Russell Street. Might be worth trying.

[swingline]

Russell Street deli has a long post on Facebook today that sheds some more light on their situation with their landlord, Mr. Nelson. https://www.facebook.com/Russell-Str...UBUWDc&__xts__[0]=68.ARAzvTrqz6iEnsGwUVvNLN4qILpknSXGkjHmMZCRwp33Sq SQB3j_YDepVhCD2dsONjxCvXV3hFTtuc0vGL3vn4gRbNkad5In MRAK3y_iI4UaNuZwvDBDvd-RAN23MjGCFgblniEJxIjqhLgemDn65nIVnsrWMlQck4RZQC2JG-81Lp8vS6cikSiqNuzn5_NNkpobnf4sQc1dE22Wac-eC8gvwuVxBmt_W1xIXSQhTyn6HAEngnffMx3W0QWMIup8vc0Ab-M3nuaDrKWInpqPOY9lzU3wZzhupoylOqCWJ84fpP00U6cQpf0V 7wuta0BZhK8C07AsbAor4mNmcg

The Facebook post suggests that the claim of a $50,000 deferred maintenance problem caused by the deli might be inaccurate. The deli implies that the claim about a need for a repair is a pretext for a lease renegotiation and that any required repair would be a minor one. Hard to know what's really going on. Litigation is expensive and it's understandable if the deli thinks that it is better off terminating the lease and moving on rather than spending many thousand$$$ on lawyers. What kind of repair, if any, is actually needed? Did the deli cause the problem? What exactly does the lease say about responsibility for the repair? What does Michigan law require in these situations? It would cost lots of money to resolve this through a lawsuit. The truth about this dispute probably falls somewhere in the middle of the two stories.

[stasu1213]

What elected official or what city employees got paid off to allow this guy leadway to purchase these buildings in the area? Elected officials and some city employees are and had been bought off for cheap as usual

[Richard]

Russell Street deli has a long post on Facebook today that sheds some more light on their situation with their landlord, Mr. Nelson. https://www.facebook.com/Russell-Str...UBUWDc&__xts__[0]=68.ARAzvTrqz6iEnsGwUVvNLN4qILpknSXGkjHmMZCRwp33Sq SQB3j_YDepVhCD2dsONjxCvXV3hFTtuc0vGL3vn4gRbNkad5In MRAK3y_iI4UaNuZwvDBDvd-RAN23MjGCFgblniEJxIjqhLgemDn65nIVnsrWMlQck4RZQC2JG-81Lp8vS6cikSiqNuzn5_NNkpobnf4sQc1dE22Wac-eC8gvwuVxBmt_W1xIXSQhTyn6HAEngnffMx3W0QWMIup8vc0Ab-M3nuaDrKWInpqPOY9lzU3wZzhupoylOqCWJ84fpP00U6cQpf0V 7wuta0BZhK8C07AsbAor4mNmcg

The Facebook post suggests that the claim of a $50,000 deferred maintenance problem caused by the deli might be inaccurate. The deli implies that the claim about a need for a repair is a pretext for a lease renegotiation and that any required repair would be a minor one. Hard to know what's really going on. Litigation is expensive and it's understandable if the deli thinks that it is better off terminating the lease and moving on rather than spending many thousand$$$ on lawyers. What kind of repair, if any, is actually needed? Did the deli cause the problem? What exactly does the lease say about responsibility for the repair? What does Michigan law require in these situations? It would cost lots of money to resolve this through a lawsuit. The truth about this dispute probably falls somewhere in the middle of the two stories.

I agree with the somewhere in the middle but the words in the newspaper article presented as his words and the Facebook post are a bit contradicting

My question is the deli listed as a for profit corporation or a non profit
he makes it sound like the only reason that they were in buisness was to provide a
a community service with no profit,were the employees paid or volunteers?

Then this

will not copy and paste but they were talking about doing a kickstarter in order to raise buisness funds

It’s either your are a 501c and non profit or you are a buisness for profit,things go south you close
just like thousands of businesses do every day.

[Richard]

What elected official or what city employees got paid off to allow this guy leadway to purchase these buildings in the area? Elected officials and some city employees are and had been bought off for cheap as usual

Why would the city have any say in a private real estate transaction between private parties?

Why would one need to pay off city employees?

[middetres]

Don't be surprised if all Sanford Nelson's buildings mysteriously catch on fire. Their stone masonry home rapidly incinerated under "unknown" circumstances, thereby allowing them to collect 21 million dollars on supposedly lost items [[artwork mostly) that were most likely removed before the fire.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/articl...e-undetermined

[Maof]

Here's a couple of more recent articles about this guy....

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/articl...e-undetermined

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/artic...such_a_schmuck

[Richard]

^ the person who wrote the deadline Detroit article comes across as much as a schmuck as the person that they are opinionated about.

Which makes them no better.

While she is making fun on ones looks,she looks like she could stand to lose a few pounds herself,no wonder bullying is so rampant in schools when such fine examples are set in print.

[gpp1004]

^ the person who wrote the deadline Detroit article comes across as much as a schmuck as the person that they are opinionated about.

Which makes them no better.

While she is making fun on ones looks,she looks like she could stand to lose a few pounds herself,no wonder bullying is so rampant in schools when such fine examples are set in print.

I think she went pretty gentle on him. He’s a spoiled
fat fuck. There I said it.

[Richard]

^ how does that make him any different then half of the rest of the country?

The writer is not exactly swim suit issue material herself but yet she found pleasure in body shaming or being shallow minded.

[southen]

Lmao she said he has a round baby face and hinted that he should get out of his golf cart and that has you in a tizzy? That is enough for you to go after the looks of a woman who isn't fat but who you want to label as such?

You must really be going off every time Trump says something like that in harsher terms, right? It is no surprise that you are here to protect the feelings of the wealthy regardless of what they are doing. I could write your posts for you if you ever wanted to take a break.

[gpp1004]

^I mean the fat part, sure. I'm not sure half of America has been living off daddy's piggy bank their entire life.

Unless I missed something [[it was a quick article skim), I would hardly call anything she said body shaming. She called him round faced and smug. No worse than you calling the author 'not swim suit material'

[MrMichigan]

Sanford Nelson definitely has to pay for sex

[gpp1004]

^This totally explains why the deli is closing. Nobody would touch that shit for less than $10k a pop. Just for the tip.

[MrMichigan]

^this totally explains why the deli is closing. Nobody would touch that shit for less than $10k a pop. Just for the tip.

lol.......................

[Maof]

I think she went pretty gentle on him. He’s a spoiled
fat fuck. There I said it.

lol...you got that right. using daddy's piggy bank too.

[Maof]

Sanford Nelson definitely has to pay for sex

..........

[Maof]

^ the person who wrote the deadline Detroit article comes across as much as a schmuck as the person that they are opinionated about.

Which makes them no better.

While she is making fun on ones looks,she looks like she could stand to lose a few pounds herself,no wonder bullying is so rampant in schools when such fine examples are set in print.

body shaming>>>bullying.

[Honky Tonk]

body shaming>>>bullying.

This must be the next phase of "journalism", name calling emotional rallying. The column has no substance. He is definitely "punchable", but she's a double-bagger. She's too sexy for her scarf.

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/columnists/31