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California Cafe seeks $1.9 million By Jeff Kearns
The parent company of California Cafe has filed a lawsuit in Superior Court seeking nearly $2 million in damages from Old Town's developers.
In the suit, Marin County-based California Cafe Restaurant Corporation alleges that developer Deke Hunter promised that the restaurant would be out of service for three months during the shopping center's extensive remodeling. Instead, the construction took 13 months, which the company says cost it $780,000 in lost profits and $122,480 for additional construction costs caused by the delay. The suit also seeks $1 million in punitive damages.
Hunter is named in the suit along with three business partnerships set up as Old Town's owners--which are now controlled by Maryland-based Federal Realty Investment Trust, the nationwide mall developer that bought a controlling interest in Old Town in October 1997.
Phyllis O'Shea, Federal's property manager for Old Town, said she couldn't comment on pending litigation, except to say that Federal "expects an amicable resolution."
"There was some correspondence forwarded," according to Federal Vice President of Development Services Jack Heinemann, "but it wasn't finalized ...we didn't end up with an agreement prior to the lawsuit."
Hunter's partner, Ed Storm, said he wasn't authorized to comment.
California Cafe's chief financial officer, Ron Davis, also did not return phone calls for this report.
The restaurant, which opened in 1985, closed down for remodeling in July 1997 and re-opened in October 1998.
In an April 1997 letter to California Cafe chairman of the board Robert Freeman and executive vice president Mosen Aminifard, Hunter said he had the necessary permits and entitlements for the construction. The letter also proposed changes to the lease, which stopped rent payments during construction, and said that the space would be ready by Sept. 1, 1997.
The suit also alleges that Hunter's company, Hunter Properties, didn't have any of the right permits promised in the letter, and that there was no way the remodel could be wrapped up in three months.
California Cafe Corp., headquartered in Corte Madera, owns and operates 14 California Cafe restaurants, six other restaurants and five brew pubs in the Bay Area and across the U.S.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
