Tenants of Brooklyn Park Business Center Face Uncertain Future
Small businesses are considered the fabric of a community.
Many Brooklyn Park small business owners are tenants on the upper floors of Brooklyn Executive Plaza. But those tenants say their building is neglected.
CCX Media previously reported that Brooklyn Executive Plaza residents were asked to leave by the end of March. As of July, many of those businesses are still there.
Ciapha Freeman’s business, A. Touch Tailoring, has been in the building for 12 years.
He does it all– from tailoring to bringing his own patterns to life.
“Alterations, I do African designs,” Freeman said.
Freeman said his business was one of several moved to the other side of the building. He says the building was neglected after a new landlord, Summerhill Commercial Real Estate, took it over.
Ciapha Freeman of A. Touch Tailoring shares one of his handmade designs. Freeman’s business is one of the tenants of Brooklyn Executive Plaza feeling pushed out.
A. Touch isn’t the only tenant with concerns.
One employee at another business down the hall also spoke with CCX News.
She did not want to go on camera, but said she contacted management multiple times about property concerns. She told CCX News the air conditioning is not working and shared photos of the hallways and bathrooms, which are dirty and littered with trash.
Freeman has similar concerns.
“The customers will go in the bathroom… and come back to complain,” Freeman said.
A Brooklyn Executive Plaza Tenant shares photos she took of the bathrooms. Tenants said the bathrooms and common areas have been neglected by building management.
Freeman said people without homes are living in the building.
“I just texted them to ask them to change my lock, Freeman said. “Things are going missing.”
Freeman said he feels management wants the upper tenants to move out.
“It is a saying that if somebody wants to get you out, they won’t bother to take care of your facilities,” Freeman said. “They want you to leave.”
He plans to move out when his lease is up.
“My business is in Brooklyn Park. All my registration… and everything is in Brooklyn Park,” Freeman said. “So I have to find space in Brooklyn Park.”
In January, the city announced it was providing $5,000 loans to the business owners to help them relocate within the city of Brooklyn Park.
Freeman said he applied for the grant. He said he will receive it once he signs a lease.
CCX Media reached out to the current and former property owners, Innovative Properties and Summerhill Commercial Real Estate, for comment. Neither immediately responded to those requests.
