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Author: Mr. Peabody
Mr. Peabody is a Child of Aquarius, a former hard drug user, and a devotee of lawn bowling. He abandoned a profitable career as an curb address number painter to fulfill a lifetime dream of mastering the zither.
Bushala Brothers, Inc. has submitted an Conditional Use Permit (CUP) application to Fullerton’s Planning Department for the development of a restaurant on the unused Santa Fe Depot loading dock.
Now
The loading dock has been empty for decades. It was the object of an earlier City history of property acquisition. The western half the space was leased to BBI in the early 1990s, when the eastern portion was not yet owned by the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency. After the City acquired the portion east of Pomona Avenue, they declined to consolidate the lease of the entire loading dock until the past few years under City Manager Eric Levitt.
Friends will recall that the revised depot lease that now included the loading dock adjacent to the Bushala leasehold was the subject of a cooked-up controversy last summer by “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra and the Kennedy Sisters of the Fullerton Observer, a “controversy” brushed aside by the council majority who recognized the potential for this unused structure.
So the loading dock is on its way to becoming a new downtown Fullerton venue that will enliven the depot area within the Transportation Center.
After review by City staff the application will ultimately be submitted to the Planning Commission for approval.
A new year, and for Fullerton, lingering problems remain a municipal embarrassment, except that the people in charge don’t seemed particularly inclined to terminate them.
Formerly a public sidewalk
The seven year-old boutique hotel has lots of current actors’ fingerprints on it. And then there’s the decades old case of the hijacked sidewalk on Commonwealth and Harbor, heisted by the Florentine Crime Family in 2002, who put a permanent structure on it, attached to a building they didn’t even own. It has never been returned.
Zahra Congratulates Marovic (in green cap) for his lawsuit…against us.
The current owner of the adjacent structure and the business in it, Mario Marovic, made a deal with the City in 2022 to remove the offending structure.
Marovic reneged on the agreement, and boy he reneged hard. The demotion was to start in March 2023 and be done by that July. Nothing started except that Marovic filed some sort of claim and lawsuit against the City for some made up reason, and the the whole mess disappeared into the usual mists of Closed Session.
In the meantime, Marovic has continued to benefit from the add-on as an integral part of his bar – Mickey’s Irish Pub for three years, and counting.
Meet the new proprietor, same as the old proprietor…
According to the deal rumor, Marovic was supposed to start removing the addition this month, January 2026. If there was a behind the scenes agreement, it should have been made public, although the City lawyers would proclaim the lawsuits pending until the removal is complete, and therefore not subject to public airing in public. Of course that would make no practical difference, but that’s the way it is – secrecy for secrecy’s sake.
Still there, after all these years…
I can’t see Marovic settling anything, stalling has been so fun; but maybe his legal bills are costing him more than revenue from the dozen chairs within the “bump out.” It would be nice to see Fullerton play hardball with this scofflaw, but it probably won’t happen. If the add-on actually does go away, I bet the taxpayers get stuck with the legal bill.
In the meantime the small contingent of “transparency” whiners at City Council meeting, the Fullerton Observer and their tender young investigative reporter Sweet Elijah Manassero don’t seem at all curious about this twenty four year-old scandal. I wonder why.
Warning: Conceptual only, not to be taken seriously!
The other day I described the history of the idiotic Boutique Hotel – a notion to build a high-end hotel on the site of the East Santa Fe parking lot at the Depot. The idea was, and is so stupid that it astounds any commonsensical thinker. And even worse, as the “unsolicited,” exclusive deal became less and less likely, the concept became bigger and dumber. The approved plan more than doubled the density allowed by the Transportation Center Specific Plan.
City projects are virtually immortal if they look like work for eager “economic development” bureaucrats or look like they can be sold as accomplishment by people like Ahmad Zahra and Shana Charles, who think (or pretend to think) that their gullible followers can be fooled into believing something good is happening.
That can’t be good…
Except that nothing good is happening. Our City officials increased the value of the property ten-fold through entitlements, but sold it for its original value – a staggering subsidy of at least ten million bucks. And that subsidy was handed to TA Partners, a flimflam operation fronted by a couple of con men, Johnny Lu and Larry Liu, at the end of 2022.
In the three intervening years nothing has happened so far as the public knows, even as TA Partners’ legal and financial woes have become public; woes that certainly should have been known by our economic development experts in City Hall prior to signing a contract, but weren’t. Why not? And why is the project at least two years behind schedule? Don’t ask. Fullerton being Fullerton.
The land was deeded over to Johnny and Larry without even an approved set of conceptual plans. But the deed was encumbered after a fashion with development and construction milestones.
And here’s the Schedule of Performance mentioned above:
Read. Weep.
I don’t know what sort of plans have been submitted, if any, but I know that grading should have started at least 20 months ago and hasn’t. And look at that project completion deadline – a Certificate of Occupancy by 10/21/26. That’s only nine months from now. As this fiasco looks worse and worse, not a peep from our friends at Fullerton Angry and Fullerton Transparency about the initial giveaway or the state of the schedule. They have more important if less expensive “scandals” to rant about.
More work ahead…
Of course the paragraph tacked on to the Grant Deed, above, describes the covenants attached to the land, but that’s it. Other language talks about the City’s right to legal recourse if the conditions of the covenants are not met. That’s pretty toothless since lawsuits are always possible; there is no mention of Johnny and Larry surrendering their new asset, an asset whose entitlements could still make it worth a fortune. Why the City hasn’t already initiated legal action is a mystery worth speculating upon.
We all know that when it comes to Fullerton redevelopment boondoggles, nobody ever takes responsibility for failures. It’s just not good form to hold the masterminds accountable. Often it’s not enough to just keep quiet; sometimes staff actively tries to keep the boondoggle gasping for air so it can be reassigned to some new front man. That’s what I think must be happening now.
By the way, a majority of the current City Council has not voted for this hot mess. It’s a legacy mess.
It’s way past time to learn what’s going on, to find out what the status of the Boutique Hotel and Apartment monster and to find out why the City hasn’t pursued legal remedy to protect our interests.
2026 is here, portending all sorts of fun for Fullerton. Some haunting spirits will have to be propitiated, among them is the so-called “boutique hotel” fiasco, one of the parting gifts of former incompetent City Manager, Ken Domer left for his ultimate successor, Eric Levitt.
You will recall the project: a small, high end hotel at the train station, that over the years morphed into a massive housing project attached to it.
Grab it and consume it as fast as you can…
Domer was the facilitator of the stupid concept cooked up by our former Mayor-for-Hire, the lobbyist Jennifer Fitzgerald. His sole reason for being City Manager, in fact, appeared to be his willingness to enable Fitzgerald’s wish lists into fruition.
And Domer was the fellow who let the project move along, during the gestation – recommending a non-bid, exclusive negotiating agreement with Westpark LLC, a company that couldn’t build a birdhouse. Domer was fired in the spring of 2021 but his boutique child, an infant that should have been strangled in its crib, lived on, proving that make-work ideas supported by staff never die.
Looks good to me…
The years passed and Levitt became godfather to Domer’s baby. In this time his staff had uncovered a new and willing partner – TA Partners. Enter Johnny Lu and Larry Liu, two con artists who were already getting deep into debt and fraud elsewhere in Southern California.
Why is Johnny smiling?
By the end of 2022 the real disaster struck: on December 20, 2022, the City voted to approve an agreement to deed over its property, the value increased tenfold, without an approved project even in place. The supporters? Ahmad Zahra, Shana Charles, and inexplicably, Bruce Whitaker, the latter ignoring any of the warning signs that his instincts should have been screaming to him.
Warning: Conceptual only, not to be taken seriously!
Three years have passed. None of the milestones in the Development and Disposition Agreement have ben met. And nobody is talking about this fiasco, at least not in public. We have all learned that Larry and Johnny have pleaded guilty to fraud; that their project in Irvine collapsed, probably taken over by whatever investment bank was dumb enough to give them a construction loan.
Has the City even contemplated action? No closed session reporting has been forthcoming and no reasons given for why not. FFFF learned that the original Westpark guy, Craig Hostert’s family is suing Larry and Johnny for their hijacking of the project. They must see some sort of asset there. If so they are right.
Despite having failed to meet contractual deadlines, TA Partners owns this 1.7 acre parcel and is presumably paying their property taxes to keep it in the family. And the property has value thanks to a incompetent City Council majority.
They had me at boutique…
The entitlements approved by Whitaker, Zahra and Charles are worth a fortune, and can, with the City’s approval, be assigned to somebody else, a tactic that City bureaucrats have pursued in the past to keep embarrassing projects alive and kicking. But that may not work because only Zahra and Charles will keep voting for this disaster.
This fiasco is now seven years old and if there’s an end in sight, it isn’t even on the horizon.
The Fullerton Observer has published a photo montage of the big ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday. Almost all the principle creators of this “treasure,” were there, although I didn’t see any pictures of Councilmembers Nick Dunlap and Jamie Valencia who voted for it. But photo-op hound Ahmad Zahra was there, and so was Shana Charles, presumably talking up the virtues of public health; even Sharon Quirk showed up to celebrate the proud accomplishment and take credit for the $1,780,000 the State of California contributed to this achievement. About 50 people were there if you don’t count politicians and City employees.
Pure joy was experienced by all!
High on life. Future users will also be high.
But skeptics that we are here at FFFF, we sent out one of our white van boys after the morning hoopla was over. William Wallace captured the sprit of the trail on opening day – a pleasant Saturday afternoon. Perfect for recreation.
See what $2,300,000 (and more, I’m sure) gets you in the way of an urban intervention, Fullerton-style.
Not a soul in sight looking west.
What did Shana have to say about the concertina wire?
Asphalt aroma is good for the lungs, they say…
Not a soul in sight looking east.
Sandbags show grade bust with unlucky neighbor.
A tree grows in Brooklyn?
Hope springs eternal…
More nasty security wire. Is this trail safe? Don’t ask.
The conversation at tonight’s Fullerton City Council meeting will turn to public property leases in Downtown Fullerton. A few years ago the Council raised rates. The jump was high – around 90% – but the City hadn’t increased rents for 10 years so the real increase over time was about 9% a year. Add the three succeeding years and it’s 7.7% per annum. That’s still high, but that’s what the Council approved, most notably the self-styled “pro business” Councilman, Ahmad Zahra.
Les Amis sans meubles...
The matter is now controversial because one restaurant occupying City space, Les Amis, run by the Montecristo clan, is using the 2022 rent hike as justification for their refusal to pay rent for years – dating back to 2011. They don’t bother explaining to their dupes all the years they stiffed their landlord (us) rent; and they never mention all the times they encroached on City property without permit or agreement. The City government bent way over backwards to accommodate Les Amis, who have shown very little gratitude for the latitude they were given for a decade and a half. Quite the contrary.
Apropos of the rent issue, one of the other complaints from the grand bruitLes Amis claque is that that one patio in particular pays no rent – the Santa Fe Café, run by Salma Bushala-Hamud.
Salma Bushala-Hamud, Fullerton small business owner and philanthropist.
First it should be mentioned that the patio in question is included in the Bushala Brothers, Inc.’s lease at the depot. Therefore it is reasonable to conclude that the area designated as 9 in the site plan is included in BBIs master lease with the City and is thus included in the entire lease.Here’s the leasehold plan:
Even if this weren’t the case, BBI has obviously decided to let the public occupy shade covered tables and chairs even if they don’t patronize the café. All you have to do is look at the people sitting in the area. Almost none of them are café patrons.
This policy is indicated by an actual sign that lets the public know they can sit there, gratis, a decent and civilized gesture.
Cry harder…
But back to the meeting. I hope the item starts out with a reminder from Mayor Jung and the City Attorney to the predictably frothed up Les Amis amigos who show up all the facts of the situation; to relate the years of skipped rent, the tens of thousands in overdue amounts, and the illegal encroachments; to let them know they’re being played by the Noaccounts of Montecristo and the rank-and-file of Ahmad Zahra’s Fullerton Boohoo stooges who demand a victim-of-the-week to weep for.
At the last Fullerton City Council meeting Councilwoman Shana Charles put the Les Amis as victim narrative on display again. Here’s what she said:
First, Pilgrim Café was not on the now-mercifully defunct Walk on Wilshire. Neither was Les Amis, of course. Those were just a couple of casual lies to remind everyone of her great success – WoW – instead of what it really was: an expensive, stupid, feel good, boohoo urban intervention that impeded traffic and hurt small businesses on Wilshire Avenue.
That led her into the revelation of a “coming soon” restaurant sign on the building where Les Amis is housed! Poor, delicate Shana was devastated – almost near tears at any moment, it seemed – at the likelihood that Les Amis was suddenly going to be something else not run by the Noaccounts of Montecristo because of course “that food was (past tense!) their heart and their culture.” Oh! The humanity!
Destroyer of Worlds…
The unspoken theme of this little speech (and parroted constantly by the Kennedy Sisters) was that Fullerton’s City Council, and especially the evil Mayor Fred Jung, is intent on destroying all good things in Fullerton. No explanation given or needed.
Spinning, spinning…
Of course distraught Shana again felt no moral compulsion to relate the truth: that Les Amis‘ patio on public property was cleared out because they serially refused to pay rent to the City, and kept encroaching without legal permits. Really another lie by omission.
But let’s not not share our pseudo-intellectual windbag councilwoman’s lament. Jinan Montecristo, who owns the building, simply rented out the empty front part to some sort of Italo-something restaurant, and it is now open. If Charles had actually taken the time to trudge herself around the corner she might have learned that Les Amis was indeed, still open; and that a tenant was moving into the heretofore empty front of the building.
Not paying your bills is the best way to become a Sharon Quirk Woman of the Year!
But that would have spoiled the ongoing narrative that demands weeping for a downtrodden victim and a wicked council majority who was somehow personally responsible for the shameful and wanton destruction of the Les Amis rented patio.
You know, looking at that picture above, a couple questions spring to mind.
Is that new restaurant paying rent to the City for the area where their tables and chairs and umbrellas are now located? We know the Noaccounts of Montecristo were using it illegally for free; did poor, downtrodden Jinan relate to her new tenants that they needed a permit and a lease with the City? Hmm. I wonder.
And as a second thought, I wonder if anybody bothered to get construction permits for any new interior remodeling for stuff like plumbing, HVAC and electrical work.
Back in June, 2022 the Fullerton City Council voted to raise rents on public property in downtown Fullerton. These spaces are used by adjacent restaurants as outdoor patios. One of the the “yes” votes was none other than “Doctor” Ahmad Zahra, the Damascene Dissimulator.
Time to come clean…..
The rent increases were big, almost doubling the cost to restaurant tenants. Here’s the old and the approved rates, and the incremental difference, from the June 21, 2022 agenda item:
The resolution to establish the new rate structure passed on a 3-1 vote. And Zahra, one of the three votes is now the self-styled “pro-small business” councilman, and is regarded as one of the ringmasters of the Poor Les Amis Club.
Les Amis, you ask? Yes, the restaurant that went years without paying rent and illegally occupied public property, and that recently had its patio stuff removed from public property at public expense.
Yard sale in progress…
A cynic might argue that the big rent increase meant nothing to the rent dodgers at Les Amis since they weren’t going to pay their rent anyhow – just like they been stalling the City for years. Neither Jinan Montecristo, owner of Les Amis, nor her youthful cub, Oliver, even showed up to complain about the new fees.
Here’s the point of this story: this rent increase is now being used by Les Amis and its loyal amis to justifythe Montecristos not paying anything in rent for years, even at the old rates, and of squatting on public property without permits or agreements.
Giving truth the middle finger…
I know! Let’s let the harpy-like elder Kennedy Sister, Sharon, another sudden small business sword and shield, share the strategy in a comment on the Fullerton Observer blog:
Why was Les Amis patio torn down by the city before the public meeting scheduled for Dec 2 at which the fairness of outdoor dining fees will be discussed? What was the urgency? Who directed that to happen?
Asking an unintelligent question is an excellent way of avoiding an intelligent answer, especially on a blog where rejection and censorship of truth-tellers eliminates the embarrassing predicament of honest correction.
I wonder how they’ll feel when they learn the that the huge amount of back rent incurred by The Noaccounts of Montecristo is based on the action of their hero, Ahmad Zahra,
So it looks as if the City of Fullerton has finally decided to quit playing pat-a-cake with Jinan and young Oliver Montecristo. The owners of the restaurant Les Amis who kept encroaching on public property without approval or permits, and who serially dodged paying tens of thousands of dollars to the City in rent, are having their “improvements” on public property removed by the City.
Les Amis and unpermitted stuff…
Here’s the notification to the City Council from acting City Manager, Eddie Manfro:
Mayor Jung and City Council Members,
I was informed this morning that Public Works crews have removed the outdoor dining encroachments at Les Amis restaurant this morning. This follows the 90 day extension that she was granted by City Manager Eric Levitt. Following her payment of $3,900 on July 23, 2025, no further payments have been received.
According to Director Bise, Les Amis was provided with a 48 hour notice prior to removal of the encroachments. Public Works will hold it for 30 days in case they wish to keep it for their future use (but not for installation in the public space).
A copy of Mr. Levitt’s 90 day extension is attached for reference. Thank you.
Eddie
A yard sale is a small business!!
No doubt the suddenly “pro-business” folks at the Fullerton Observer, and “doctors” Zahra and Charles will continue to spin this into a David and Goliath story: little David being the scofflaws who have paid almost nothing to the City in rent for 15 years and who blatantly refused to follow City rules about squatting on public premises.
Poor Oliver
The last City Manager, Eric Leavitt actually gave the Montecristo mob yet another 90 days to make good on their debts and encroachments. Les Amis got a two day notice and still refused to do anything. So Public Works did. And the City has generously volunteered to keep the Montecristo junk on hand for a month in case they want it for some reason.
Les Amis sans meubles…
I really hope Jinan and Oliver get a bill for cost of removing their junk from the public right-of-way, although I doubt if they’d pay it.
And speaking of ever so earnest Oliver, I look forward to his appearance at the next City Council meeting blaming Mayor Jung for his own mother’s failure to pay her bills and play by the rules.
Got noise? Lots of noise? The two “doctors” on the Fullerton City Council and their followers like the Kennedy Sisters and tender young Elijah want you to believe this is vibrancy and culture and small business success!
