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After months of rumor three new businesses choose Village spaces |
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Tuesday, 06 October 2009 |
 The Village at Mammoth
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
Following what has been the buzz in Mammoth Lakes for weeks, Village leasing agent Matthew Lehman of Trademark Properties has formally announced two new leasing deals there and Joani Lynch of the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area confirmed another.
The Mammoth Mountain Ski Area will build out and open a new restaurant/bar in a prime space overlooking the central plaza.
“We are working on concept and theme,” Lynch confirmed. “We would hope to have something open as close to the end of the year as possible.”
Mammoth Gallery, a prior tenant of the Village, will return to its old location, and keep its current space on Old Mammoth Road.
And Gomez’s Mexican Restaurant on Mountain Boulevard will expand with a second, larger restaurant – Gomez’s Mexican Restaurant and Cantina – at the former Hennessey’s site near the Side Door.
“I think the magic is going to come now because of the combination of shops,” said Gomez’s owner Michael Ledesma. “There’s going to be a magic there that hasn’t been there before.”
“I’m glad he’s going there,” Lehman enthused about Ledesma’s decision to open a second eatery in the Village.
“He’s definitely a very qualified business person. They have a small space in town now, but he knows what he’s doing, he and his partners.”
“We are absolutely thrilled because we
are such believers in the community and in the Village itself,” Ledesma added.
“It’s gone through, obviously, a tough time, but sometimes things have to happen that way for them to come through to the other side and be great.”
Ledesma will keep everything the same in the new location, “but we’re going to bring much more fun and excitement and festivity.”
Ledesma hopes to have his new restaurant open by Christmas or sooner.
“If the liquor license transfers,” he said, “We could be open by Thanksgiving.”
The smaller A-Frame location on Mountain Boulevard will remain open, but with a different concept and a beer and wine license.
Mammoth Gallery owner Warren Magill hopes to open his new gallery at its old site on Nov. 21, the weekend before Thanksgiving.
“We’re glad the landlord has adjusted the rents to current market conditions, and we look forward to the Village being re-occupied,” Magill said. “We’re excited about returning to the Village.”
The majority owner and landlord of the Village is CNL, a real estate investment trust (REIT) with an 80 percent stake there. But a REIT may not manage a property, so Intrawest was hired to run the Village and retains a 20 percent interest in the property.
Local legal counsel Rick Wood has represented many of the Village tenants for nearly two years in their efforts and discussions to create sustainable lease agreements in the Village with CNL/Intrawest. In April, town council members and town manager Rob Clark also contacted CNL to emphasize the need for market rate leases and common area maintenance fees for the tenants.
Ledesma doesn’t believe the Village could have achieved the variety and combination of businesses that are shaping up there now without the leasing and renegotiation struggles.
Lehman, who has been working with CNL and Intrawest for months to get up to 90 percent of the Village leased by winter, has hoped to attract as many local owners to the Village as possible to create owner-operated businesses that cater to locals as well as visitors.
Many in the community were disappointed when Restaurant LuLu closed its doors earlier this year, but Lehman is in active talks with two people to lease that space, too. The site has the advantage (as does Hennessey’s) of having been previously built out, which saves money for prospective tenants.
A restaurant space across from the former Restaurant LuLu site has never been built out and no one has expressed serious interest in it yet.
“Hopefully we can get some interest in it,” Lehman said. |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 10 October 2009 )
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