Market House down to 2 tenants

Crab cake joint closes as dispute between city, Site Realty continues

By RYAN JUSTIN FOX Staff Writer

Published 12/31/08

And then there were two.

In the wee hours of the morning Monday, Chesapeake Bay Crab Cakes vacated its corner stall in the Market House downtown, leaving only Vaccaro's Italian Pastry Shop and BankAnnapolis remaining.

The departure of the crab cake shop caps off a year and a half in which nine of the 11 businesses have closed in the downtrodden downtown historic building.

The management company continues its lawsuit over the Market House in county Circuit Court.

Calls to Chesapeake Bay Crab Cakes management were not returned before press time, but representatives from the company who asked to remain anonymous said extremely poor sales were the main culprit for the closure.

Employees were informed of the closing Christmas Eve, the representative said.

In 2006, the city of Annapolis agreed to a 10-year, $100,000-a-year lease with Market House Ventures, a subsidiary of Silver Spring-based Site Realty Group, to manage the iconic property.

That was after renovations were made after it suffered considerable damage from Hurricane Isabel in 2003.

Vendors moving into the Market House when it re-opened in July 2006 complained to both Market House Ventures and city officials that the cooling system was inadequate for many of the businesses.

By October 2007, the system forced Fractured Prune and What the Fudge to shut down their stalls.

A few months later, Market House Ventures sued the city for $2 million, citing the city's failure to fix the faulty cooling and heating system. The company upped the lawsuit to $6 million two months later in February 2008.

In May, Waterside Pizza, American Grill, and Gourmet Commissary and Sophisticated Sweets left the Market House. Galway Bay, the Fresh Stop and Auntie Anne's Pretzels left in September.

Several of the former vendors intervened later that month in the ongoing lawsuit over the Market House, lobbing complaints against Market House Ventures and the city.

"It's sad, but its part of the progression," said city Central Services Director Robert Schuetz. "(Market House Ventures) has tremendous control over the situation right now."

The city is only in the third year of its 10-year contract with Market House Ventures.

Calls to Market House Ventures and its attorney, Neal Hyman, were not returned.

Earlier this month, the Washington, D.C., city government dropped Site Realty from managing its historic public market, Eastern Market, which Site managed through another subsidiary called Eastern Market Venture Inc.

Washington, D.C., officials said Site Realty violated a slew of lease agreements, including entering into contracts exceeding $25,000 without the city's approval; failing to maintain its nonprofit organization status in the district; not registering with the city Office of Tax and Revenue; and failing to monitor tenants for sales and use tax registration, liability insurance and business licenses.

Annapolis city officials said Site's lease agreement is a completely different situation from Site's agreement in Washington, D.C.

Annapolis Mayor Ellen O. Moyer said that Site was taking over an existing lease in D.C.

"We would love to get out of the contract. (Market House Ventures) has not been very good partners. We've had three years of bad management," Ms. Moyer said.

Nikki Roden, a manager at Vaccaro's, said company officials told employees it plans to stay at its Market House location until it can find a better location or until its lease expires. She said she was not certain about the date the lease ends.

Market House Ventures has exclusive control of the interior design and layout of the Market House under lease terms.

Mr. Schuetz said that in the next few days, city inspectors would check the vacated stall for safety and electrical and plumbing hazards.

City officials said that they have been referring businesses inquiring about leasing space to Market House Ventures, but the management company has been non-responsive.

City officials suggested temporarily holding art shows and exhibits during the boat shows this past fall and selling cider during the New Year's festivities tonight, but Market House Ventures declined.

YOUR COMMENTS

RULES OF PARTICIPATION

If you encounter other problems, please email ewiffin@capitalgazette.com and include your name, username, and any errors or messages that are displayed. The more information you can provide, the better able we will be to assist you.

In order to post or vote on a comment, you must be signed in with a hometownannapolis account.

Report Abuse or Vote In order to allow the user community the ability to collectively rank the value of comments posted on the Capital Gazette websites we have implemented a thumbs-up/down system. All logged-in users may participate by voting up/down each comment. If others vote on your comment, your individual score will go up/down depending on the votes. Initially, everyone starts with a score of zero, and must earn credits to have significant voting weight. Individuals with higher scores will have more voting weight. 0

Here's an Idea - January 6, 2009

How about if the City of Annapolis rents the building to CASA of Maryland for a job training center for illegal immigrants? They can hand out drivers licenses, find jobs for illegal immigrants, etc. If not, it can always become a Rent to Own or Dollar Store or even a good liquor store ? one step closer to being a dead business district. Thanks Mayor!