08/06/2007 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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• • • July 19, 2007 Lino Lakes City Council Lino Lakes City Hall 600 Town Center Pkwy Lino Lakes, MN 55014 Re: Parking at Spirit Hills Center Dear City Council Members: The letter dated 5/15/07 signed by Mike Grochala was the first notice that we received that there was even a controversy over parking or any other issues involving Spirit Hills Center. The parking counts submitted in the report along with this letter were inadequate by 4 spaces (see attached certified as -built drawing SHC parking has 133 spaces). The parking required column is inaccurate because of wrong square footages and exaggerated employee counts. It also assumes that the center is 100% full when at this time is 81% full. In 2002 our parking plan was submitted and approved by this very council and staff. Based on this approval, we invested nearly $4 million in the construction of the mall and the required street improvements, including 40% of the bill for the signal light at Birch & Highway 49. We question whether an unsubstantiated tenant complaint about parking justifies requiring us to surrender 10% of our finished building space without even an opportunity to defend ourselves? This same tenant has missed 80% of due dates for rent and has habitually complained about the taxes, mall traffic, the bridge closure, empty space in the mall, stop signs, city streets and now finally parking. We do not believe this is fair or correct. Let's clarify some things about Mr. Szyplinski's letter to the Council dated 6/11/07. In the first paragraph he fails to mention that his attorney called us to initiate the meeting. The reason for the meeting was so Mr: Szyplinski could ask for an extension of the tenant improvement loan — which consists of the $60,000 we loaned him to start his business. He also misrepresents the comments I made about the reason his business is failing. What was said was that "Klosner - Goertz had built many of the houses in the surrounding neighborhoods and these people and many people working at the City are my friends, as I grew up in this area. What I hear from my friends is that they won't go back to Mansetti's because Jim stands beside their table and complains endlessly about how poor business is." This is a quote that was witnessed by my partner, Tim Klosner, Szyplinski's lawyer and Szyplinski. I did ask for an apology for his erroneous accusations and I told him that if he expects any more concessions from my company, he needed to withdraw his baseless complaints about the parking.