An Ascension Parish shopping center with major national tenants that include Office Depot and Family Dollar is seeking an emergency temporary restraining order against a family trust that wants to cancel its 40-year-old ground lease.
New River Shopping Center on Airline Highway in Gonzales filed the request in Baton Rouge federal court this week, seeking the restraining order, a permanent injunction, damages and other measures to prevent the Lester Gonzales Family Trust.
New River’s owners, Floridians James Rifkin and Jane Packard, received a letter on April 27 threatening to evict New River from the New River Shopping Center if it does not vacate the premises by May 8, according to the lawsuit. At issue is a disagreement over whether lease payments have been made on time under a new arrangement.
New River’s attorneys write that Vivian Villenurve and Margaret Kernan, both trustees of the family trust, have “continued to act in a willful and vexatious manner by making multiple threats,” purportedly because the long-term lease New River signed in 1976 is “supposedly not profitable for them.” According to court documents, New River paid $8,400 annually to lease the property, but also pays property taxes, insurance and improvements.
Rifkin and Packard contend in the lawsuit that New River has more than 46 years remaining on its lease, including options to be exercised, and that they stand to lose millions in rental income if the ground lease is terminated. The shopping center comprises 74,407 square feet on a 7.8-acre tract, offering 10 retail spaces. Current tenants include Stage, Family Dollar, Springleaf Financial/One Main Financial and Office Depot.
The Lester Gonzales Family Trust has unsuccessfully sued New River over the lease on two previous occasions, according to the lawsuit: once in 2005 and again in 2015. In the latter case, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick ruled the trust could not rewrite or cancel the lease simply because it believed it was a “bad deal.”
—Penny Font
