Spotlight: The Hawaiian Hut

Situation:

The Hawaiian Hut, a family-owned business, was being displaced by the West Valley City Fairbourne Station redevelopment. The city purchased the building being leased by The Hawaiian Hut and accepted payments for one year, then gave the business little notice to move out. The owners were offered $1,500 to move, even though they had over 15 years left on their lease.

When the owners said they had nowhere to move their business on short notice and that they could not even move their inventory for $1,500, the city offered $5,000.

At this point, The Hawaiian Hut came to Kirton McConkie to see whether we could help protect their interests. In the meantime, the city sent an official notice of termination of the lease, which they had no contractual right to do.

Solution:

Kirton McConkie helped The Hawaiian Hut quickly negotiate a new lease and enter into a relocation agreement with the city. During negotiations, the city agreed to pay the owners for lost business profits, relocation costs and build out costs for the new space. Through the West Valley City Redevelopment Agency, the city also agreed to make improvements on the new leased space in exchange for lower rent during the duration of the lease, which made the new space work for The Hawaiian Hut. 

To meet the demolition schedule and help our client remain open in the original location during a critical business season, the parties agreed to operate the store’s walk-in refrigerators and freezers—filled with leis, suckling pigs and frozen fish—on a diesel generator for two weeks so the adjacent building through which The Hawaiian Hut’s power was delivered could be demolished sooner.

The Hawaiian Hut moved out by midnight on the last day and at 8:00 a.m. the next morning the city began demolishing the building.

One year after the move and one year and two weeks after Kirton McConkie was hired, The Hawaiian Hut is doing better than ever and the city is getting ready for the ribbon cutting on its new Embassy Suites Hotel.

The Kirton McConkie real estate legal team was able to help The Hawaiian Hut move to the new space with fair compensation, which was much more than had originally been offered by the city. And, the city was able to stay on schedule with their redevelopment and avoid costly litigation. By being creative but firm in our negotiations, we were able to work with the city to meet its objectives while protecting our client’s interest.  In short, the situation turned into a win-win for everyone involved.