VENTURA : Lease OKd for Retail Shops, Restaurant
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After months of looking for a tenant, the Ventura City Council has approved a 10-year lease for a restaurant and retail operation at the end of California Street across from the Holiday Inn.
The council Monday approved leasing the three-store, 5,800-square-foot complex to three local businessmen who hope to install a restaurant and retail shops this summer at the site of the former Charlie’s Seaside Cafe & Restaurant.
Eric Wachter, one of the new tenants, said he envisions a bistro-type restaurant that will serve light fare. He owns and operates Eric Ericsson’s at the end of Seaward Avenue.
Several retail shops operated by Chuck Smith, who owns K. B. Roberts downtown, are also planned. Officials at the C Street Surfing Museum, which is already in the complex, are negotiating with Wachter, Smith and developer Tom Wood about whether they will stay.
Under terms of the lease, the trio will provide at least $300,000 worth of tenant improvements in the building by Sept. 1. In return, they will not have to pay the city about two years worth of rent. Rent will be about $4,850 per month, or 4% of the gross receipts, whichever is higher. In the sixth lease year, the rent will increase by $308 per month.
If tenant improvements are not done by Sept. 1, rent will be charged at $30,000 per month, City Atty. Peter D. Bulens said.
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