Good Afternoon,

I am writing on behalf of the Youbi family who operates the Le Parc Café at the Coral Gables Country Club. My family and I have truly appreciated the opportunity to work with the City of Coral Gables in creating the Café at the Country Club. With lots of hiccups and growing pains along the way we have been able to create a neighborhood café that has been widely embraced by our community. As you all know we have been in contract extension negotiations with several representatives of the City for several months. Our most recent meeting was held, we hoped, in order to hammer out some final details and get an agreed upon extension. Our goal was to have an informal meeting where rational minds could communicate on the few remaining items to be determined and come to some form of agreement. Sadly that was not the case. 

An email from the Asset Manager dated September 15, 2023, after our meeting, contained several patent falsehoods which we feel we must address. Additionally, the rhetoric that has been presented to the Commission by the Asset Manager and City Manager is simply untrue and should be made clear on the record.  

1. Our attorney provided the City with our business plan on July 31, 2023. This plan included the credentials of all owners of Fresh AN LLC. The City has repeatedly maintained that it does not have credentials which is incorrect as they are contained in our plan. Additionally our attorney also provided our financials for the past year as well as projections for the new year were we to execute an additional agreement. Moreover, we have owned several successful restaurants in Miami for the past 30 years. We have also operated in the Le Parc Café space for the past year. That is a testament to our credentials and what we are able to do in the space were we to continue to operate.

2. We have made several proposals to the City all of which have been shot down. It is utterly false to say that Fresh AN LLC has not presented any proposed terms as the numerous emails from our attorney clearly demonstrate. 

3. The Asset Managers representation at the last Commission meeting that we were being given an “amazing deal” that is “below market value price per square foot” is absolutely false. The City is demanding that we pay a minimum guaranteed payment of $18,500 per month (to increase to $20,500 in the second year) for a 2,500 sq foot café space. The City claims that their expenses to operate the space are approximately $12,110.00 per month, an astronomical and nonsensical figure. The building is approx. 40,000 square feet of which Le Parc occupies some 2,500 sq feet, a little above 6%. Despite that small %, the City is attributing the café space with between 60-90% of the various costs. Some of these figures we have requested to take on ourselves at a much more affordable cost. For example, the City is attributing costs of $45,486 per year to Le Parc for janitorial services which is nearly $4,000 per month. We can easily take this cost on ourselves if the City would be amenable to reducing the requested minimum monthly payment by $4,000 but the City has refused.

4. In stark contradiction to the City’s claim that they are offering us a below market value deal please consider the example of Gustave Café on Miracle Mile. As many of you know that space recently came available for rent. At 2,750 sq feet it is a comparable size to the Le Parc Café space. It is also beautifully renovated with a fully functioning kitchen and indoor and outdoor seating. The asking rent on that space is $50 per sq foot or $11,458 per month with tenant paying all expenses (triple net). Taking into account the taxes, insurance and various utilities the projected expenses on that space are between $15,000-16,000 per month, some 2-3k less than the “amazing deal” the City is offering at the Le Parc space.  

5. We are prepared to extend our stay in the space for a guaranteed “rent” of $15,000 per month for an additional 2 year term. We even discussed a breaking point with the City where we would be willing to pay an additional % above the $15,000 if our net income surpassed an agreed upon $ figure at the end of each year. Again, the City has outright refused this offer.

6. Our initial agreement with the City contained a guaranteed 5 year renewal term which the City has refused to honor. As anyone within the hospitality industry knows, it takes a significant investment of time for a restaurant to begin seeing profits. That is why a 5 year lease, with an option to renew, is the standard in the business. A single year term will almost always leave the owners in the red, which has been the case for us.

It has become very apparent to us that despite assuring us and the Coral Gables community that the City wants to support small family owned businesses and wanted a mom and pop café in the Le Parc space that what they really want is a large hospitality group who can absorb such astounding figures. No small business can survive and flourish under such circumstances. We do not believe that an additional extension will resolve the issues as the Asset Manager and City Manager have made it clear that they are unwilling to negotiate in a fair and reasonable manner. As such, it is with deepest regret that we must walk away from the Le Parc space at the end of the current extension.