San Francisco’s China Live restaurant remains under threat of eviction following a new lawsuit filed by its owner this week.
The owner and landlord of the building, 644 Broadway, LLC – which is part of Cypress Properties Group – filed an unlawful detention lawsuit on Wednesday alleging that the San Francisco restaurant at 644 Broadway still owes $3.4 million. rent dollars in May, court documents show. The San Francisco Business Times first reported the story.
According to court documents this week, 644 Broadway is asking China Live to pay the remaining $3.4 million or face eviction. SFGATE reached out to China Live and Cypress Properties Group for comment, but did not receive a response by post.
Chief owner George Chen told the Business Times he was hopeful he and his owner could reach an agreement, but shared he was also ready to vacate the huge space depending on how things go. pass.
“We are happy to pay the market rate more — whatever the more — and ask them to renew a long-term lease and create a tenancy for us so we can survive,” Chen told the Business Times. “But if they’re not reasonable, we’ll shut down and go somewhere else, because we can’t survive in the long term.”
Entrance to China Live in San Francisco on Wednesday, April 26, 2017.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty ImagesThe current rent arrears are down from the $4.2 million China Live would have owed when its landlord first filed an unlawful detention in January. In those court documents, 644 Broadway said China Live received millions of dollars in Paycheck Protection Program loans but did not use them “for the specific purpose of helping pay rent,” as previously reported by SFGATE.
In March, Terry Mollica, an attorney at 644 Broadway, told the San Francisco Chronicle his client had “voluntarily” denied the eviction threat but did not provide further details. He added: ‘We always try to get the tenant to pay the rent. (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)
China Live opened to much anticipation in the three-story building in Chinatown in 2017. According to a previous report by the San Francisco Chronicle, construction of Chen’s towering store began in 2013 and had a price tag of 20 millions of dollars. Court documents filed Wednesday show Chen’s monthly rent is currently $163,308.29.
During the pandemic, Chen received $2 million in PPP loans and told the Business Times that he “pays rent every month except (during) the 18-month moratorium period.” He added that the current accumulated charge is “completely disputed”.