Found has been Lost

[ron_newman]

Found, the used clothing consignment shop at 255 Elm Street, has closed. Someone identifying himself as the owner was standing outside a few minutes ago, and he told me that the landlord is "a greedy jerk who jacked up the rent, and is not a good person." He also said the shop had suffered from shoplifting. He hopes to find a new location where he can reopen it.

Comments

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

a greedy jerk who jacked up the rent, and is not a good person

What a strange idea, the landlord would rent out the building in order to make money.

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

So "making money" is at once and always a socially laudable value?
Just "how much" money is socially laudable? Or do we just not concern ourselves about consequences?
And if someone views (or treats) a community as a resource to be exploited, why should they not be reviled?

[belt cruz (from livejournal.com)]

The issue is that he lures people in at a lower sustainable rate with false promises and then jacks the rent up to 16k when the first part of the lease ends.

The book store guys will tell you exactly what happened. Granted their industry was dying but I have heard first hand some really heinous stories.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

The issue is that he lures people in at a lower sustainable rate with false promises and then jacks the rent up to 16k when the first part of the lease ends.

I've heard similar stories about other landlords. Certainly I'd expect a priori that landlords would offer much better rates to new tenants than they would to established ones.

But what's the point? At some point, it's cheaper to move to a different space than to pay the new, higher rent in your current space -- and stick the landlord with years of lower rents in the lease he has to give the next tenant. That's the bargaining leverage you use to cap what your current landlord demands in the renewal lease. Presumably every retailer knows this game and knows how to cope with it.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

So "making money" is at once and always a socially laudable value?

Assuming that we permit commercial landlording to be a market system -- and we may decide otherwise, but we seem to permit it in this country -- then the landlord is organizing his behavior to maximize his profit. Conversely, the store owner is organizing his behavior to maximize his profit. And naturally, their interests in the matter of the amount of rent are in conflict. But both of them are morally permitted.

Now if we want commercial real estate to be a resource which is managed for the overall benefit of the community, then we would naturally expect the community to pay for building the building and maintaining it. But as long as we expect a landlord to build the building and take care of it, I think landlords will act like landlords.