Philosophically accepting his fate with a positive face, Mr. Handal never sounded less than upbeat, though the windows to his soul were firmly drawn. He said he only finalized the Sunday night closing last week.
How it came to this jolting conclusion is a tale told by one side. Asserting that the landlord Stu Freeman sought to double his monthly rent last winter and refused to entertain any notion of negotiation, Mr. Handal said that events moved swiftly following his formal notification last Jan. 4. His counter-offer, he said, was met with a single-word rebuff. Mr. Freeman declined to respond to any allegations. Since 1992, three restaurants have occupied the historically significant eighty-two-year-old building that has been in the Freeman family since the 1930s. Mr. Freeman said he is weighing offers and anticipating a flood more. Without specifically committing himself, he said the corner “obviously lends itself well” to a restaurant. But Mr. Freeman indicated he was not hurrying to close a deal. Personally for Mr. Handal, he will be on his way in a few hours to a new venture in Beverly Hills, closely followed by his Culver City staff. Relatively personal about his disclosures, he mentioned two family experiences that he said were crucial in forming his formidable profile as a respected Westside entrepreneur.
Reaction of Leaders Alternated
For the past decade, Mr. Handal has been one of the hardest-charging seminal figures in the development of a reconstituted Downtown that blossoms all around him this morning. A fearless visionary, his brassy creativity, by turns, inspired, rib-jabbed or ticked off Culver City’s most influential personalities. Five minutes after his arrival on a late spring day in 1995, it was plain that his unshined ambitiousness would attempt to be the engine that knocked Downtown off its quavering pedastal and showed it how to become a mature, sophisticated community that matched the stature of its legendary motion picture studios.
Unswervingly — but not uncharacteristically — standing his ground as long as there was daylight between him and the other side, the fifty-two-year-old native of Brooklyn told the winding story of a relationship in tatters that drove the present result. One of the region’s most outgoing, aggressive public personalities throughout his dynamic eleven-year tenure at the corner of Culver Boulevard and Cardiff, he remained entirely within the parameters of his character. Freely discussing previously unknown scenarios that hurried the scuttling of the flagship restaurant, he did not draw back one more curtain than he had planned to.
A Master of Timing
The timing of Mr. Handal’s landing in the middle of the 1990s was superb, as his timing often would prove to be during the next decade. The strongest minds in City Hall and the business community seemed conflicted about the kind of town Culver City should be growing into. While civic leaders wondered if they could dip into a giant gene pool and pick the most suitable personality, Mr. Handal came along as a fearless, tart-tongued, wisecracking, wise-guy New Yorker who had personally done everything others had only read about. Who was going to show whom? Without always deferring to the niceties others preferred, Mr. Handal played big brother to their occasional delight, to their occasional consternation and, in the longer run, invariably to their benefit. While some laboriously pored over dense blueprints, the sharply assertive Mr. Handal led the loosely organized Downtown team in crackling ideas, supreme confidence, feuds and pure productivity. He was used to going through or climbing over impediments. His colleagues on the team figuring out how to grow Downtown were accustomed to a softer, gentler approach. Clashing never was out of season.
Chapter One of His Inside Story
Following is Mr. Handal’s unvarnished account of recent and distant events that brought him, unbowed, to the finish line.
Question: What lies behind the closing of San Gennaro?
“Ten and a half years of redevelopment of Downtown, increased property values, increased rents. Realistically speaking, I am paying $2.05 a square foot right now while others are paying $3.75 and $4. The fact is that San Gennaro, with its menu and its concept, cannot pay $4 a square foot. Not practical. To be truthful, every run has its end. To be very practical, trying to do something that is not affordable, does not make sense. I think we have done way too much good in the community and been too good of a community partner to go out on a sour note.
“I made an offer to Mr. Freeman. I offered him $100,000 into an account for him (based on) $3 a square foot, and he rejected it.
My belief is he can get $3.75 to $4 a square foot. If he can’t get it from a mom-and-pop operation like San Gennaro, he can get it from a limited partnership where someone is coming in to open a business with someone else’s money. Or from a corporate store where they throw the rent into the mix, and they don’t mind losing the money because they know in the long run they need the visibility. Downtown Culver City is now an area that should command visibility by corporate stores.”
Good for Each Other
Question: Why do you think Mr. Freeman rejected your counter-offer? Was it personal more than commercial?
“I think it’s both. It’s definitely personal. He has made it personal. Overall, I think we have been a good tenant. Overall, I think he has been a good landlord. He did not charge triple net charges during the lean days. He did not give me the rent increase that was in the original set of documents even though we’ve been on a month-to-month (lease) for ten years and eleven months. It was month to month because that was the way Mr. Freeman wanted it. I never looked at it from the standpoint that he was always looking over my shoulder. I knew the day was going to come when the rent was much more than I was paying. I paid a dollar-and-change when I got here in 1995. I assumed the lease of the previous owner (Bella Pasta, which grew into the corporate name of Mr. Handal’s enterprise).
“When the lease ran out, that was when we had the big turmoil with Mr. Freeman. He charged me $500 a day for thirteen months. This was at a time when businesses Downtown were commanding about a dollar-fifty a square foot. But I paid it. And I survived it. See, he didn’t want to give me a new lease. That is when I started looking, at that time, at the corner where Enteman’s is now. I spent about $45,000 to design out a new restaurant there. And you know, after thirteen months, Mr. Freeman came back and said, ‘All right, I will do a month-to-month with you’ — as opposed to the day-to-day I had at the time. We always slipped the rent under his door.
“When he advised us he was terminating the month-to-month lease, we tried to negotiate. This was sometime in late January. He sent a letter (including a demand to vacate the property within thirty days). We tried to negotiate. But he didn’t really want to talk about it. I finally made him the offer of $100,000 and $3 a square foot. He rejected it outright. Actually, it was a one-word fax that said ‘No.’ To be quite frank with you, it was not dickering. If he can get $3.50 or $4 a square foot, God bless him. He’s a third-generation property owner who has been around a long time, like many of these property owners Downtown.”
One Principle of Renting
Question: What was Mr. Freeman’s reason for raising the rent?
“He didn’t need a reason. Market dictates rent. When the new guy opens at $4 and the next new guy opens at $4…Honey’s Kettle and Ben Ford’s restaurant are in that range. What I tell people is you have to understand that in the rental business of commercial property, the smaller the space, the higher the rent. So while Jim Rodriguez (of Santa Maria Barbecue) is opening up with about 2200 square feet, Honey’s Kettle has 1900 square feet, and Ben Ford has 1900 square feet, I have 5400 square feet. To pay $3.50 to $4… We have used our space very effectively. The Banquet Room has been a major benefit for the community, to hold community meetings there.
“I don’t know if I could have offered Mr. Freeman enough money to stay there. Honestly, though, more than $100,000 makes it worth my while to go find another location, which is exactly what I am doing. My plan for San Gennaro is that our last night is Mother’s Day. We are taking bookings from everywhere. People are calling in because they want to be there for the last night, people who have been intricately involved with San Gennaro. God knows, we have engaged almost the entire community in one way or another. I will wear a raincoat for those who want to throw things. I will wear my chef’s coat for those who want to have a great final dinner.
“I am sure there are a half-dozen people out here who are applauding my leaving, reveling in the Goodbye, Jay. Even if it’s a dozen, that’s okay. Then I haven’t done my job effectively in ticking off enough people. I would not change anything. What I have done, and what San Gennaro has done for the community, in ten and a half years is more than a dozen people will do in the next year here together.
“I am the first one ever to receive the President’s Award from the Education Foundation, an award they created that year for me. I have received the Education Foundation Award from four different schools out of eight in ten years, In fact, this Saturday I am receiving one again, on my way out. I have received commendations from the Redevelopment Agency. I have received Certificates of Appreciation from the Exchange Club, from the Lions Club. You name it, and we have been involved with all of the organizations.
“We have raised over $100,000 for local charities, allowing them to come in on a Saturday morning, donating all of the food, donating all of the labor, allowing them to sell tickets for a pasta lunch and raise between $4,000 and $6,000 in a three-hour period. We were doing that every other Saturday. If I am here ten and a half years, and I did it fifteen times a year, a hundred and fifty times an average of $4,000 is a lot of money. The Friends of the Library (we hosted), and I could go on and on. But the fact is, I am not someone who likes to toot his own horn. This is something I learned from my father.”
Tomorrow: Mr. Handal addresses the subjects of family traits, personal feelings and bankruptcy.
