When the city of Battle Ground officials pleaded with Prestige Development to bring a movie theatre and family restaurant to Battle Ground in 2002, we obliged.
That is what we do.
We bring needed businesses to small communities where national and regional chains do not go.
We developed The Gardner Center, then sold it to a group of investors from California who were accompanied by some local investors as well. Little did we know that all of their interest would just be to suck every penny out of The Gardner Center and not put any back in; they let it go to hell.
These pictures, http://bit.ly/gardnercenterhazards, available on our Facebook page, speak for themselves. Yes — rats, garbage, unsafe sidewalks, a deteriorating parking lot, the corrosion of beautiful pieces of art and even leaking walls. We had an independent inspector come in 2012 to give an official report, which is available here: http://bit.ly/gardnerinspection.
It all fell on deaf ears. Very slow respond, if they responded. Very poorly managed.
Furthermore, they allowed the use of wetlands north of the cinema which they did not own for a community garden which was beneficial only to one of their tenants. He was growing herbs, and wanted to build a pergola on the wetlands without permission of the ACOE.
Is it too much to ask a landlord to perform what they agreed to under the contract? Slumlords and their attorneys harassed and intimidated our witnesses and the judge refused to hear the testimony of the broker whose office made copies of the complete lease.
Court of Appeals, here we come.
Elie Kassab
Vancouver
