Condemned SLO building that housed popular brewery hasn’t been fixed. Now what?
Months after its building was condemned and the tenants evicted, the owners of a San Luis Obispo property on Laurel Lane have yet to make the necessary repairs to bring the space up to code, the city says.
Now it might be time for legal action.
In a Sept. 5 notice posted at 1150 Laurel Lane — which was home to Bang the Drum Brewery and SLO City Church — Laurel Creek LP was ordered to begin repair work at the property within 15 days and complete those repairs within the month or potentially face legal action.
The notice listed more than 270 code violations found during a multi-day inspection that presented “an immediate threat to residents, occupants, neighbors and the public.”
“Safety remains our top priority, and after years of inaction by the property owner and extraordinary patience by the city, we posted this additional notice as our next step to compel the property owner to address the identified issue at the site,” city spokesperson Whitney Szentesi told The Tribune in a statement. “The building remains unsafe to occupy, and there continues to be dozens of violations.
“This notice is a critical warning and enforcement tool intended to motivate compliance before further legal action is pursued.”
In an update Sept. 30, Szentesi said the city had received “no indication that the property owner has addressed the repairs,” despite the now-passed deadline to begin work.
Laurel Lane property owners declared bankruptcy after building condemned
On March 10, a vacate notice was issued to tenants — including the brewery and church — claiming the property was unsafe and unfit for occupation.
At the time, Szentesi said the city had been working with the owner for five years to renovate it from a warehouse to a mixed-use building. The work stopped at some point, however, and the owner let the state of the property deteriorate.
That was when the city stepped in and condemned the building, saying it was unsafe to occupy.
It’s unclear exactly why the building work stopped in the first place. Laurel Creek LP representatives did not respond to repeated Tribune requests for comment on the issue in the wake of the initial city condemnation.
The group unsuccessfully appealed the declaration in May, saying in general the city’s safety concerns were unfounded and laying out a plan for how repairs would take place. The city’s Construction Board of Appeals denied the appeal.
The group did file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections in July, claiming it had between $50 million and $100 million in estimated liabilities.
According to the initial filing signed by general partner Patrick Smith, the group estimated it had between 100 and 199 creditors. The largest unsecured debts included $9.3 million to Petro Pace Finance out of Austin, Texas; $718,215 to the County of San Luis Obispo Tax Collector; $652,100 to Mahogony Construction in Templeton and $590,463 to Famcom Pipe & Supply Inc. in Oxnard.
At least 12 of the 20 largest debts listed in the filing seemed to be construction related, including claims for electrical, painting, plaster, lumber and roofing companies.
Notably, the filing also said the group did not “own or have possession of any real property or personal property that needs immediate attention,” despite the city’s previous condemnation of the Laurel Lane property.
A Tribune request for comment from the company’s legal representation was not returned as of Tuesday.
Hundreds of code, safety violations found at condemned property, city says
On a recent visit to the property, the city’s 72-page notice and order to repair or abate could be seen duct-taped to a wooden stake in the largely abandoned parking lot at 1150 Laurel Lane.
It was also taped to the window of several of the building’s vacant office spaces — right next to the city’s initial declaration that the property was “unsafe to occupy.”
In the months since its tenants were forced from the building, the property has seen a marked decline.
On the side of the building where warehouse operations were allowed to continue, trucks continued do business as normal, coming in and out even as the driveway leading up to property has become more treacherously bumpy in recent months.
The southern side of the property was a different story.
There, litter and construction debris sat strewn across the grounds, including large pieces of cardboard and plywood, slabs of metal trim and even broken and stained pipe. Protective covering that the city said back in March was showing signs of wear now hangs in tatters along one of the building’s walls while scaffolding blocks off another unit nearby.
At what was formerly Bang the Drum, an assortment of furniture and odds-and-ends sat abandoned on the patio while inside the splintered wooden remains of the bar lay feet away from the brewery’s chalkboard menu — still listing its final lineup of savory pies, sides and sweet treats.
What was notably missing was evidence of ongoing and consistent work at the property.
During mid-day visits on Sept. 11 and then again Oct. 2, no significant construction work appeared in progress at the site beyond at one point the clap of a person moving lumber in a field on the north side of the property.
In its notice, the city said it had found hundreds of violations to health and safety, building, electrical, fire, mechanical, plumbing and municipal code at the two-story mixed-use structure.
Those ranged from “missing and dilapidated walls, floors, ceilings and mechanical, plumbing and electrical components,” exposed wiring, unpermitted rooms and unfinished plumbing and gas lines to signs of animal or rodent infestation — “including accumulation of feces and urine” — mold growth and a build-up of junk and trash in hallways.
According to the notice, the consequences for not correcting the violations “may include administrative fines, abatement by the city and civil remedies such as injunctions, penalties, and an application for the appointment of a receiver over the subject property.”
On Thursday, City attorney Christine Dietrick said the city could next consider seeking a court-appointed receiver who would oversee bringing the property into compliance, saying it was “certainly an available tool and one that is on the table for consideration with this property, given the long history of lack of progress on the project.”
Szentesi meanwhile told The Tribune that “legal action is an option” in light of the ongoing issues at the property.
“The city always tries to first work with a property owner to voluntarily comply and fix identified problems,” she said. “We only use legal action as a last resort when all other efforts have failed.”
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