Peter Messinger, owner of The Aquarium, who has emerged as a leader among beleaguered business owners on South Sepulveda Boulevard, has not been encouraged by his conversations with City Hall on the proposed redevelopment of his business district. Nobody knows exactly what is going to happen, or when. Everybody, though, has suspicions founded in fear about how soon their relatively frail businesses could come tumbling down, at the behest of City Hall and a developer. They worry about the future of their (mostly) small enterprises beyond, say, next year. They have heard war stories, second- and third-hand, about redevelopment strategies that have gone sour for many owners. Mr. Messinger, who is attempting to collect signatures on a petition, has aggressively pursued data, remedies — and support. He said Joe Susca, the project director in the Community Development Dept., once told him, “We have lots of money to relocate businesses. We spent $200,000 moving one.” As Mr. Messinger related the story from his busy office in the rear of his family business, he recalled that “four weeks after that conversation, a lawyer walked into my store. He said he was contacting all of the businesses along here because he has been dealing with the city as an eminent domain lawyer. He represented (the business owner) Susca told me about. Yeah, the city moved him. He is out of business. His equipment is in storage.” Mr. Messinger was silent for a moment, allowing the new information to be absorbed, an apparent contradiction to what City Hall had told him. “It is unbelievable,” he said.
He Refuses to Surrender
Like many — not all — of his estimated 100 business colleagues along a 2-block, 13-acre plot of South Sepulveda Boulevard between Sawtelle and Jefferson, Mr. Messinger fears a developer’s bulldozers will mow down a business he has spent 20 years building and nurturing, one piece at a time, into a tidy living. To his wife and two children, to City Hall, to his employees and to his fellow business owners on South Sepulveda, he has pledged to plunge all of his resources into stopping or diverting developer Bob Champion’s grand plan. With the developer promising that he can have his gigantic mixed-used replacement plan open within five years, Mr. Messinger realizes he is competing with a mercilessly ticking clock. As a small businessman, he has no illusions about segueing painlessly from his old but durable building at 5403 S. Sepulveda into new upscale quarters built by Mr. Champion.
Predicting a Spike in Rent
Shiny promises notwithstanding, he knows rents will soar. He predicts $1 per square foot will rocket to $4. “Rents are going to be astronomical,” said the 42-year-old Vienna-born Mr. Messinger. “For most of us, that means we are out of business. I don’t know who can afford to, all of a sudden, pay four times the rent.” A not-to-be-overlooked factor is that while Mr. Messinger physically constructed the aquariums and the fixtures when the store opened in 1986, he has only owned it for the past year. A month later, he was notified, by letter, that an all-inclusive teardown of the numerous properties was planned. He had mortgaged the family home to afford the acquisition. His backup plan — “if I lose this location” — calls for shifting operations to a warehouse. Even this is no bargain. “Going to a warehouse probably would double my rent,” he estimates. “The going rates for warehouses are between $2 and $3 a square foot.”
Here Comes No. 2
Rising rents only represent Thumping Headache No. 1 in presumably transferring from modest digs to becoming part of a large, upscale commercial package, a giant mixed-use layout. Assiduously, he has conducted his research, which brings him, unhappily, to Thumping Headache No. 2. As the owner of The Aquarium, Mr. Messinger is a single operator, which, he says, considerably diminishes his leverage, his bargaining authority. He has only his own store to present to an ambitious developer who thinks globally. “When most developers start a big project,” he said, “as a matter of policy they do not rent to single-store operators. Most people are not aware of this.” When he checked out a transitioning property across Sawtelle, on the old Blockbuster site, he had a discomfiting experience. “I called the broker when it went for lease,” Mr. Messinger said. “‘Oh, yeah, I’ll get back to you,’ he told me. He didn’t. So I called him. He said, ‘The owner doesn’t rent to single-store family operators.’” That was a splash of cold water in Mr. Messinger’s face.
Shut Out of High Visibility Venues
The owner of The Aquarium drew another scenario. “If you wanted to go to the Fox Hills Mall and pay $6 a square foot, maybe they will let you. But most malls won’t rent to you unless you have 20 locations. They just won’t take the risk with a family business. The big difference these days is that it doesn’t matter which mall you go to. The same 50 national companies are there. It’s a Starbucks and not Joe’s Coffee Shop. It’s Burger King, not Tommy’s Burger. It doesn’t matter what kind of business it is, it’s a chain. One reason is, most chains are basically wholesalers selling to the public. They can afford to pay five bucks a square foot. It’s just single-store operators who have to buy from a wholesaler, like I do… I can’t go to the manufacturer and say, ‘I’m going to buy six trainloads of fishfood. I have to go through a wholesaler. Petco can go and say, ‘I’ll buy six trainloads.’”
Staying Competitive With Giants
Even that immutable fact of a small retailer’s life is handleable, says Mr. Messinger. He has succeeded in business even though two chain-store rivals of The Aquarium — Petco and PetSmart — are within view of 5403 Sepulveda. “We have been able to compete,” he says, “because we have relatively cheap rent, and we are a little bit of a specialty store. If I am forced to move to a place where I would have to pay $5 or $6, I am out of business.” His clientele provide two more reasons The Aquarium could not stray far from his cozy neighborhood. “My customers are loyal and they are local,” Mr. Messinger said. He is a realist. “Nobody is going to drive 10 miles to pick up a can of fishfood.”
Postscript
Following months of being frustrated over his dealings with City Hall, Mr. Messinger emailed each of the five City Council members in December. “I said I wanted to meet with them to see where they stand,” he said. He senses far more fog than transparency emanating from City Hall over the South Sepulveda teardown. “Before I start spending money on ads, and before I start fighting back seriously, which I will — I had a budget of redoing the store when I took over the business. My strategy is this: I can either spend the money redoing my store or trying to save the store. I will spend every last penny on ads, billboards, whatever I have to do.” Mr. Messinger has no doubt that some night when he goes to sleep, unsuspectingly, City Hall will expand the Bob Champion development. “They say they won’t take residences. I don’t believe that. What is to stop them from taking one more block? Nothing.”
Finally, Mr. Messinger said that when the five City Council members responded to his inquiry, “they told me I should talk to Joe Susca.” “Been there,” he said to himself.
