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Little Saigon Plaza foreclosed on
| Tuesday, Jun 10 2008 6:56 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Jun 11 2008 7:36 AM
Bakersfield’s Little Saigon Plaza, an Asian-themed shopping center at 333 Union Ave., was foreclosed on last week, county records show.
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Ruben and Rosa Benavidez, regular customers of the Vietnamese restaurant Pho Vy, have lunch Tuesday afternoon. Little Saigon, which houses the restaurant and other businesses, has been foreclosed on, leaving tenants wondering about its future.
Jason Tieu came from San Jose after buying the restaurant Pho Vy with his dad in the Little Saigon shopping center on Union Avenue. He didn't know Tuesday that the center had been foreclosed on.
Juana Romero came from Manhattan Beach to purchase Angie's Nail and Hair, which she runs with her daughter, Jessica Ortega, right. She says good customer word-of-mouth has allowed the business to succeed, but she questions the validity of some of the fees she was being charged by the previous owners of Little Saigon shopping center on Union Avenue.
The Little Saigon shopping center on Union Avenue has been foreclosed on, leaving some of its tenants wondering about the future of their businesses.
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The repossession by Lantzman Investments Inc., a private lender in San Diego, is the second for developer William Lee of San Jose.
Lee’s partially built V Heritage Plaza at 2303 S. Union Ave. was also foreclosed on June 4.
Marc Lantzman, president of Lantzman Investments, said Tuesday he planned to keep Little Saigon running and even hoped to spruce it up a bit.
“We would like to keep all of the occupants,” Lantzman said of current tenants.
IN THE DARK
Jason Tieu, 43, who owns the Vietnamese noodle shop Pho Vy, said Lee never mentioned a possible foreclosure. He wondered aloud if he should find an attorney.
“I’m really worried, you know,” Tieu said early Tuesday afternoon as customers finished bowls of noodle soup. Plates of bean sprouts and fresh basil topped their tables.
The former computer network engineer bought the restaurant and moved from San Jose about a year and a half ago.
Tieu had always wanted to run his own business. His immigrant father, who doesn’t speak English or drive, had been isolated and depressed in San Jose, Tieu said.
These days, 76-year-old Thong Tieu keeps busy clearing tables at Pho Vy.
The younger Tieu prides himself on serving authentic Vietnamese food, but said he’s struggling despite a loyal customer base.
His monthly rent runs $3,920. Another $762 goes for plaza maintenance, he said.
A few shops down, Angie’s Nail & Hair salon owner Juana Romero said her landlord has done little to promote the shopping center.
“There’s no customers over here,” Romero said.
The $375 she pays each month on top of her $1,700 rent was intended, in part, for Internet and radio advertisements, she said.
Romero moved from Manhattan Beach to take over Angie’s a year ago.
Panhandling in the parking lot and prostitution in the neighborhood have been hard on business, she said.
She asked Little Saigon’s property manager to hire a security guard, she said, but so far no luck.
Romero learned Little Saigon had been foreclosed on from a reporter Tuesday.
She was worried about her investment — she paid $28,000 to buy the business, Romero said.
She also hoped a new landlord would be “somebody who puts money back in the plaza.”
CITY HELP
In 2002, the city of Bakersfield provided $183,500 in redevelopment funds to help move Little Saigon forward, said Donna Kunz, the city’s economic development director.
The money cleaned up a burned-out restaurant and installed landscaping and sidewalks, she said.
The 33,000-square-foot center opened in late 2004. Lee, the developer, sold a small residential complex associated with the project in September 2004, property records show.
Kunz believes Little Saigon is an excellent site but could use revamping.
Future owners “need to rethink having so narrow a cultural theme” for a shopping center set in a neighborhood outside its demographic.
The center caters to Asian customers — particularly Vietnamese — but is set in a predominantly Latino area, Kunz said. Several Vietnamese restaurants, a market, bakery, pool hall, adult book store and nail salon currently occupy the site on the west side of Union, just south of Fourth Street.
Several storefronts are empty.
HOPES DASHED
As the project gathered steam in 2003 and 2004, news archives show, Lee hoped Vietnamese residents would flock to Bakersfield from expensive coastal areas.
The development would boost sales tax revenues for the city, benefit the housing market, revitalize Union Avenue and bring in property tax money, he said.
But as of Tuesday, Lee was delinquent on more than $44,700 in property taxes for the Little Saigon site, county records show.
And on top of foreclosures at Little Saigon and V Heritage, local building companies and subcontractors have filed liens and lawsuits against Lee’s companies claiming more than $2 million in unpaid construction bills.
If Lee can pull together financing in time, he’ll be able to buy back the Little Saigon and V Heritage sites.
Lee was given an option to buy the properties within 30 days of the foreclosures, said Lantzman, the investor.
Lee said Tuesday he is close to sealing a loan that will allow him to get Little Saigon and V Heritage back.
Ross McClintock, a retail broker with NAI Capital in Bakersfield, said retail real estate activity is slowing a bit.
But Lee’s foreclosure is “a very isolated thing” in Bakersfield’s commercial market, he added.
“I think what happened is the guy just ran out of money,” McClintock said.
Lantzman said he hopes to fill Little Saigon’s vacancies and put money into improvements.
But like most investors, Lantzman doesn’t want to be a landlord.
He hopes to sell Little Saigon sooner rather than later.
Lee owed more than $1.6 million on the Little Saigon loan that foreclosed last Wednesday, records show, and another $1.6 million on the foreclosed V Heritage loan.
Lantzman said he had even more money on the line for the two Bakersfield sites — at least $4 million.
“I’m not a happy camper today,” he said.