There is no issue in the city of Monterey as polarizing as leases on Fisherman’s Wharf. Business owners and their allies claim the city is attempting to confiscate property and bully small business owners long established on the pier. Critics see a pattern of sweetheart deals that have allowed a few families reap large profits over decades paying below-market rents.
As it now stands, two wharf businesses who have been on month-to-month leases since their long-term leases expired in 2014 would rather close than accept the new terms proposed by Monterey officials.
“We’ve tried to be flexible and work with them,” says City Manager Mike McCarthy. “The terms of the city’s proposals have extended beyond 10 years and have been below market rate.”
The first casualty to Monterey’s new leasing guidelines, passed by the City Council in March 2015, is Balesteri’s Wharf Front, a folksy gift shop that has been in operation since the 1960s.
After the landlord, Monterey, and business owner Sam Balesteri failed to reach an agreement following 11 months of negotiations, the city issued eviction notices to the gift shop and to two subletters, Paluca Trattoria and the Coffee Shop.
Unless an agreement is reached by Aug. 31, Balesteri’s Wharf Front will shut its doors on Sept. 1. (The Coffee Shop and Paluca will stay in business while separate talks continue.)
Owners of Liberty Fish, a fish market and deli that has been in operation on the wharf for three generations and more than 60 years, plan to close Jan. 1 – if they are not evicted sooner.
Under the terms of a ground lease, which are standard for city property including Fisherman’s Wharf, the leaseholder owns a building until the lease expires and then the property reverts back to the city. The former leaseholders are allowed to remove any improvements, which in some cases could be entire buildings, but that remains unlikely.
(2) comments
The writer forgot to mention that just last August, the City Manager of Monterey issued a letter stating that all the current rents on the Wharf we market rate.
Balesteri's was faced with a new rental rate 4 times their current rent and stated at a City Council meeting last week that they could not afford to stay in business at the rate the City was insisting on. Reluctantly, they have decided to close an institution that has been on the Wharf for over 50 years. This is sadly only the beginning and the City Council needs to be held accountable for what they are doing to this treasured landmask.
The writer failed to mention that in of spite a letter written last August stating all the current rents paid by all the businesses on the Wharf are market rate the City demanded Balesteri's pay 4 times their current rent. They could not stay in business at that rate and chose to close. Unless the City gets more realistic, many more will close and the Wharf will forever be changed. For the worse I might add.
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