The foreclosure process on the Shops at the Village on Lower Main will be completed at an auction Jan. 6.
A representative of the attorney’s office organizing the auction predicts the lender will win the auction to collect its collateral on the loan the owner, Thompson National Properties, held.
The Shops, a collection of commercial units surrounding the Marriott Summit Watch hotel and a few near the Town Lift, went into receivership in September and have been overseen by Scott Bennion with Commerce Real Estate Solutions.
While business at the stores, galleries and restaurants has been uninterrupted during the foreclosure of Triple Net Properties and NNN Summit Watch the “doing-business-as” entities of Thompson National Properties, tenants still say they are victims of the process.
Several lawsuits have been filed by tenants against Thompson over the last two years over what they claim to be unfair Common Area Maintenance (CAM) fees.
This is money the owner of the units collects from tenants and passes on to the Marriott Summit Watch homeownership association to maintain walkways, parking spaces, exteriors, the plaza and more, explained association president Robert Crawford.
Because the maintenance budget is adjusted every year, the amount of the fee changes.
A lawsuit is ongoing between Thompson and the association because the owner was not passing that money on. In receivership, Bennion now collects that money and gives it to the association.
Hoping for relief from these high fees with the delinquent owner gone, several tenants are disappointed to learn nothing has changed, and none appears imminent. Some say the association is trying to tax them to make up for money unpaid by Thompson.
Crawford said that isn’t true. The amount of the fees was set by Thompson, and now the receiver. There is no direct connection between the budget and the fees. Nor is the association trying to make tenants pay for Thompson’s debt. To the contrary, it opted to continue maintenance for several months in spite of no payment.
“The (association) continued providing services to the tenants property management, trash collection, water and sewer, lighting to the exterior of the plaza, snow removal, landscaping, security, parking These actions enabled all tenants to continue operations only on the basis of the generosity and goodwill of (association) and Marriott Summit Watch management,” Crawford said. “While the COA had the legal right to prevent any use of the commercial space because of non-payment, we elected to not do that to maintain the current operations and future value of the property.”
Regardless of who is to blame, many business owners say the fees are too high and the service provided in exchange for them is lacking.
Kevin Doolan, owner of Doolan’s, and Robert Reyes of Reyes Adobe both say they have leaky ceilings. Reyes and his neighbor Yehuda Yoked at Reef’s Kitchen also complained of having to shovel their own snow last week.
Yoked said he would never have signed the lease in 2008 had he better understood the CAM fees. They are now up 70 percent from two years ago.
“It basically represents over 55 percent of my rent. This is absolutely amazing. This is just ridiculous,” he said. “We’re all stuck there, nobody is happy, everyone is apprehensive.”
Jared Briggs, owner of Lunatic Fringe Park City, said he’s looking for another place.
Tim Mertens, owner of Destination Sports, said he’s had to scale back his business because of the high overhead.
“It’s not a matter of being unfair anymore; it’s undoable,” he said.
Mertens, Reyes and Doolan both said the fees are about 30 percent of their total rent.
It’s even harder to pay the fees when they disagree with how the outdoor mall is managed.
“They’re ruining lower Main Street; it’s a ghost town in this courtyard,” Briggs said.
“This is a major issue for us,” Yoked said. “This plaza could be the jewel of Main Street. Instead, it’s dead.”
His customers and those of his neighbor come out of loyalty. The plaza enjoys no foot traffic, he added.
“Anywhere else, whenever you pay maintenance they’re on it. Here, they show up every now and then,” Reyes said.
Crawford insisted the homeowner association is not to blame and is suffering as well.
“The (association) is not entitled to any money obtained through the foreclosure auction of the property. The (association) therefore has a large ‘bad debt’ expense,” he said. “The (association) and the Summit Watch management team have been and are continually working to minimize the common area expenses while keeping the commercial plaza space well maintained, secure and beautifully landscaped to provide a positive ambience to all who come to shop, eat and just enjoy.”
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