Evicting the Living Room
Beverly Hills' only independent bookstore closes amid anger and disappointment
By Ana La O’
More than six years ago, the City of Beverly Hills asked longtime bookseller Doug Dutton to create a "living room" for its community, a place to escape street traffic and delve into a new novel or to mingle with literary enthusiasts. And soon, the new Dutton's Bookstore would sometimes be crowded with people hoping to meet such visiting authors as Zadie Smith, Gore Vidal, and even Al Gore.
These days, however, all that remains of that "living room" are empty boxes and empty shelves. After just two years in business, Beverly Hills told Dutton's to pack up and leave its home at 447 North Canon Drive because it can't pay the rent. While the city council claims it did all it could to help the struggling business, Dutton calls the eviction shortsighted and against its original promises.
"They have every right to remove me," Dutton says now of the City Council. "What's wrong is not talking to me. Three years of my life trying to establish this thing here ... . They could have given me one afternoon where I could have met with them."
Dutton opened his bookstore in 2004 in the city-owned Canon Drive space after four years of courting from Beverly Hills. The city hadn't been home to an independent general bookstore in a decade, and the council believed that Dutton's would suit its affluent community, given the success of its landmark Brentwood store. While Dutton was initially reluctant to accept, he changed his mind when the city offered him a 10-year lease with below-market rent and, more importantly, constant expressions of verbal support.
"When Regent properties approached us, they said, 'Whatever you need, we want this bookstore to work,'" says Dutton. "It wasn't written down, but it was repeated time and time again."
"The long-term lease was the kind of protection we don't have in Brentwood ... which gave us a time for stability and I thought a time for growth," he added.
In a related story, the owner of the much-loved Brentwood Dutton's store announced Wednesday that he now plans to develop that property, which has thrown that Dutton's store - the last of three in the L.A. area that were open only five months ago - into doubt.
The growth of the Beverly Hills store was stunted in July 2006. After experiencing difficulties paying his rent, Dutton wrote a letter asking the city to discuss revising his rent contract. He proposed that they base his rent on a percentage of his gross in order to give the store more time to develop.
The city rejected this option, and in a January 9 report City Manager Roderick J. Wood referred to Dutton's requests as a "public subsidy for a private for-profit business," illegal by state law. Wood also claimed that giving Dutton's 25 percent below market rent was the best the city could offer and that they "met with Dutton's on several occasions to discuss options including the overall reduction of rent by closing the coffee shop area, and other options such as marketing programs for the business."
Unfortunately, such suggestions would come nowhere near paying the supposed $101,666.74 that Dutton's Bookstore owes in back rent, Common Area Maintenance charges, interest, and penalties, says Dutton.
Furthermore, Dutton says, the "several" meetings with Beverly Hills never happened. The store owner says that the city approached him once in September about closing down the bookstore's café - to which he agreed if the city in turn reopened lease negotiations - and once in November through a letter, stating, he claims: "Pay everything in 10 days or quit." At this point, Dutton had not paid rent since July, and the city "added up all the late fees and interests to push that number up to the biggest number possible to make it onerous and impossible," says Dutton.
The only time Mayor Stephen P. Webb approached Dutton about his request for lease renegotiation was on December 29, just two days before the store closed and after Dutton had already let go of his staff. Dutton says Webb proposed splitting the 447 Canon space in half, renting one part to the bookstore and the other part to another business. At this point, it was too late and Dutton's closed on December 31.
For now, Dutton has moved his Beverly Hills merchandise and book signings to his increasingly crowded Brentwood location. At his old Beverly Hills space, the city plans to open up another bookstore, says property manager Brenda Lavender-Moody, despite rumors that the city wanted the space for a restaurant. Lavender-Moody insists that the defunct Japanese restaurant next to the bookstore will be used for a new restaurant.
"Come back when that steakhouse comes through and see how much of this property it occupies," Dutton speculates. "They saw an opportunity to increase city coffers by putting in a steakhouse and the shortsightedness of it is there's other ways of judging benefit and wealth besides dollars."
Published: 01/18/2007
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT
