City Hall shuts down valet parking at dealership
Three metered parking spaces in front of the Mitsubishi dealership on Santa Monica Boulevard will remain vacant indefinitely.
A dispute over the spaces, recently leased to the dealership as valet parking, came to a head this week and City Hall shut down the valet stand.
“It’s kind of the worst thing,” Santa Monica Mitsubishi owner Michael Korman said. “Because now I can’t use them either.”
City Hall earlier this year rented the three spots between 15th and 16th streets to Mitsubishi for $6,750 a year, plus a $1,750 annual licensing fee. The valet parking was needed, Korman said, for prospective buyers who typically spend more than two hours talking over deals with salespeople.
But workers next door at Busy Bee Hardware at 1521 Santa Monica Blvd. said their customers are suffering, because the dealership lock on the spaces leaves fewer for hardware store customers. Workers complained that their customers, who might need only a handful of nails or a pair of pliers, will sometimes park illegally and get stuck with $30-plus tickets.
Korman, who bought the dealership in February, compromised Tuesday with Busy Bee owner Don Kidson after being made aware of the situation.
“I had no idea that we even had an impact on the neighbor,” he said. “I called him up and I said, ‘Hey, what’s going on? If there is a problem with the parking, let’s discuss it.’”
“I had no idea that we even had an impact on the neighbor.” — — MICHAEL KORMAN Owner, Santa Monica Mitsubishi
Korman agreed to share his valet area with Kidson’s customers for free, saying most car shoppers come in the evenings or on weekends when business at the hardware store is slower.
But within hours of resolving the dispute with Kidson, parking officials descended on the dealership and fined it $250.
Korman, whose valets supposedly illegally drove in reverse in the roadway and left cars in spots for longer than stipulated in the agreement, was blindsided.
634,“How about let’s call me up and say, ‘Hey Mr. Korman, we understand there’s an issue and we have concerns,”’ he said. “There’s a way to do things not to leave me in the dark, and all of a sudden I come to work and the parking is gone.”
With the $250 citation pending, parking coordinator Bill Bortfeld said the dealership now must hire a new valet operator. The service also needs a new business license for the location, as well as police permits and other paperwork, a process that typically take weeks.
Bortfeld said City Hall is considering ways to provide more parking for Busy Bee, but declined to discuss them.
Santa Monica Mitsubishi, among the top dealers in the city, grossed about $50 million in revenue last year and is projected to pull in $60 million this year, Korman said. The 40-year-old owner, who recently bought a home in Santa Monica, also owns dealerships in Modesto and Tracy. He said he was trying to be a corporate citizen, noting his charitable giving to local groups, but he was baffled by the parking debacle and the lack of notice from City Hall.
Veronica Portillo, manager of Busy Bee, which opened in Santa Monica in 1914, said she is grateful for Korman’s offer to share the spaces. But she added that Korman is partly to blame for the situation.
“We wish that he would have come and talked to us, instead of getting the valet parking first,” Portillo said. “So we’re in the same boat too.”
Michael Korman
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 18, 2003. Read the original PDF.