San Antonio's burgeoning food scene is once again facing a hiccup in tenant/landlord relations.
This time, the owners of Folc and Park Social have filed a lawsuit against their previous landlord Carolea LLC. In the suit, partners Luis Colon and Daniel Eisenhauer allege their former landlord breached their lease contract signed in June 2014 by not completing necessary updates to the space at 226 E. Olmos Drive. Colon and Eisenhauer claim Carolea failed to address their many requests, including (per the suit):
* Repair cracks and potholes in the parking lot;The lawsuit also claims that, "In some cases, Plaintiffs were forced to complete repairs themselves to keep the restaurant open." That meant repairing an air conditioning unit and fixing an electrical panel, along with "a refrigerator that was damaged because of the electrical panel failure," according to the lawsuit.
* Provide fencing around the dumpsters as required by the City of Olmos Park;
* Repair leaks in the ceiling;
* Repair lights in the outdoor signage; and
* Complete basic lawn and landscaping work.
The problems came to a head after a November 8 fire (no, not the election) shut down the Folc portion of the building. According to the suit, the partners gave the landlord official written notice of the fire on November 21. They say that per their lease agreement, the landlord had 120 days to notify the tenants when repairs would be made.
However, per the suit, Carolea never told Colon and Eisenhauer when that might happen, all while denying a rent abatement (which the tenants had asked for since they weren't using the damaged portion of the building). The landlord eventually locked the restaurant group out of both Folc and Park Social on February 2.
Currently, the Folc/Park Social team has no access to personal property they left inside the building, which also houses Chez Vatel off Olmos Drive. Colon and Eisenhauser are hoping for damages, the return of their personal property and attorney's fees.
"We just wanted our restaurant back," Colon told us by phone on Tuesday afternoon.
A Carolea representative told us by email that the company wouldn't comment on the matter due to pending litigation.
