“The Harbor is mismanaged; everything takes too long! You think I’m going to sign a second lease? You think I’m crazy?”
More than two years of patiently waiting and hoping, believing he was going to get help, TowBOAT/US owner Harold Smith made it clear to the Mayor and Council last night that they are the ones who are in default of his lease at the $1.3 million building constructed by Kappa Construction. And he wants out.
But matters appeared even worse for the long-time tenant who has been praised in the past for all the efforts he volunteered after Hurricane Sandy. He now faces a double whammy.
Smith also has the lease on Sissy’s, the popular first floor breakfast and lunch café in another building in the harbor. The lease on that facility is up the end of the month, but more problems are facing the troubled businessman. The Harbor Commission has asked for some time since the deck on On the Deck, the restaurant above Sissy’s on the second floor, is in bad shape, needs repairs, and according to Smith, the leases there have been told note to use it until the repairs are made. Now the lease is due to be signed the end of the month.
But those repairs will impact Sissy’s business, Smith argued, pointing out his workers have to go out under where the work is being done, his refrigerator is put in a precarious position, and “everything takes forever and then it doesn’t happen.”
Smith’s argument with his Boat USA building is currently under litigation between the borough and Kappa Construction, the builder, and cannot be discussed. Smith signed a lease in January 2021 and since then, although the borough apparently signed off on the construction and paid in full for the work, there have been violations and dangerous construction problems he’s been complaining about to the Harbor Commission first, later the mayor and council. While reportedly some of the repairs have been made and some of the safety and health issues have been resolved, the work is still not complete, and the governing body has not ever taken any action on Smith’s request to be released from his lease. Last night he told the council they are in violation of their own lease, since while they are charging him full rent and have throughout the entire period, they have violated the terms that dictate speedy repairs of anything in need. ‘“You approved the lease, you’re in default,” he told them angrily at the meeting, “I have no confidence in the Harbor Commission.”
Now, with his second leasehold underneath a separate business that is also having structural problems, Smith told Council, “ that isn’t my problem, that’s your problem. My lease is not with On the Deck owners, it is with the borough.”
He said he negotiated for the lease for Sissy’s in November and just got the papers back from the Harbor Commission two and a half weeks ago, and still he’s being told to wait. Smith told the council he called the harbor attorney three times and still has not been able to talk with him.
In September of last year, when Smith’s patience started to show signs of diminishing, and he told of his loss of patience with delays and lack of attention to the condition in TowBOAT/USA, he asked to be released from the lease and told them “I’ll go elsewhere. It seems you’re driving me out of town.”
A tenant at the Municipal Yacht Harbor since 1998, Smith first tried to have the building contractor fix the five major problems that have existed since the new $1.3 million building at the harbor was completed 20 months previous. He moved into the top floor of the building, renting approximately 350 square feet of space with incredible broad sweeping views of the harbor, the piers, and the water beyond.
But inside the building, a series of problems still had not been addressed by Kappa Construction, in the building built in 2019. Nor did the Harbor Commission to whom Smith pays rent, or the Mayor and Council, with whom the lease is approved take any action.
Since then, some of the repairs have been made, but the borough is suing the construction firm for the errors and dangerous situation, even though they apparently approved the work and paid the contractor in full.
At last night’s meeting, the Borough Administrator was not clear on whether certificates of occupancy are required for any of the buildings owned by the borough.
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