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~l ~ ~~/07 <br />. . ~ <br />September 14, 2007 <br />Mr. Michael Darrow <br />Interim Community Development Director <br />City of Roseville <br />2660 Civic Center Drive <br />Roseville, MN 55113 <br />Re :Har Mar Mall <br />Dear Michael- <br />City Staff has recently conveyed to Emmes Realty Services, LLC who represents Gateway <br />Washington, Inc. (owner of Har Mar Mall) a desire to move the driveway into Har Mar Mall from <br />Snelling Avenue to the south to line-up with Skillman Avenue. The purposes of this letter are to <br />register the opposition by Gateway Washington, Inc. to any such change and to explain the <br />reasons for that abjection. In summary, any such change will result in the. possibility of the loss <br />of certain existing anchor tenants of Har Mar (or at the least assertion of claims that such tenants' <br />respective leases have been breached). In addition, unless this issue is quickly resolved, Gateway <br />may lose pending lease transactions involving national anchor tenants due to the uncertainty as to <br />the location of the Snelling driveway. If Emmes loses such transactions, Gateway will suffer <br />significant damages in terms of both lost revenue and the property value of Har Mar. <br />Currently the language in every Anchor Tenant lease (Cub Foods, Marshall's, HomeGoods, <br />Michaels, and Barnes and Noble) prohibits the changing or closing of any entrances, or exits, to <br />or from the Mall without the consent of such tenants. If any such change is made without their <br />consent, some tenants have the right to terminate their lease while others have the right to reduce <br />their rents. <br />Additionally, the Mall's leasing team has letters of intent out to prospective tenants for the front <br />theatre space and the outlot site formerly occupied by Ground Round. Beyond the possibility of <br />losing our existing Anchor Tenants, these potential new tenants are reluctant to sign leases for the <br />vacant theater spaces without la~owing where the entrance from Snelling Avenue will be located. <br />Moving the Snelling Ave. entrance south negatively impacts the sight lines from Snelling Avenue <br />to these spaces, and renders these spaces much less attractive to first class tenants. This change <br />will severely impact or, at a minimum, greatly delay our ability to release the theatre spaces. <br />Moving the Snelling Avenue entrance to the south will also place the road in the only place where <br />we can build an outlot building on the west side of the property. The current outlot site is the <br />only location where we have a legal right to have an outlot building pursuant to existing leases. <br />Certain anchor tenant leases prohibit our building in the area north of the current building <br />including the existing driveway (again, these "no build" areas were insisted upon by the tenants in <br />order to protect visibility of their store signage from adjacent streets). Accordingly, if the <br />driveway were moved to the south, Emmes would be prohibited by these existing leases from <br />moving the current restaurant space to the north, resulting in substantial loss of value of the Mall. <br />We are unclear as to why the City is seeking to remedy any existing traffic problems by changing <br />the driveway location on the east (Har Mar) side of Snelling. From Har Mar's perspective, the <br />existing driveway presents very few operational issues. Any traffic problems which may exist at <br />this intersection are caused primarily by traffic on the west side of Snelling Avenue. It seems <br />