Realtor blames El Taco ownership for restaurant's closure

Photo by Alex Dominguez

DOWNEY – More than a week after one of Downey’s two El Taco locations abruptly closed its doors, new details have emerged that may indicate that the restaurant’s ownership may be more at fault than they’re letting on.

According to Alberto Vazquez, the general manager at the Florence El Taco location, El Taco’s Firestone location was unable to deal with an increase in rent triggered by increased property taxes after the property was sold.

However, the real estate agent who represented the property’s new owner during the sale pushed back on those claims, pointing the finger back at El Taco ownership.

According to an email sent to the Downey Patriot from Brad Freeman of Harcourts & Freeman, current El Taco ownership “defaulted on terms agreed to long ago,” and did not perform up to a revised agreement with the property’s new owner that was agreed to in court before a judge.

The El Taco property had been purchased by Freeman’s client in October of 2016 for $1,805,000.

Freeman explained that the only increase “after the purchase” was in real estate taxes, and the increase was only a portion of the $24,000 quoted that was not previously being paid.

The new tax bill totaled $1,960 a month, as opposed to the former $810 a month. Freeman added that “this is an issue with the assessor and is not something building owners arbitrarily impose on tenants.”

Rather than pay what amounted to be a difference of $1,150 a month, Freeman says that the restaurant’s ownership declined to pay at all.

“…the amount of the rent becomes a meaningless point considering the length of time El Taco Owners paid ZERO rent,” wrote Freeman.  “And while they paid ZERO rent for many months, they continued to operate the El Taco and pocket the money they should have paid in their normal rent.”

“This is what the dispute originally resulted over.  Because the Owner of El Taco did not want to pay the extra $1,150 a month after the sale, El Taco stopped paying rent completely!  A revised agreement was negotiated in court, but El Taco did not perform on the revised agreement either, and never made a single payment under the revised agreement.  This El Taco Owner ruined his own business on Firestone over $13,800 a year…that is the bottom line.”

Freeman described the property as being “held hostage,” adding that an eventual sheriff lockout was utilized. Employees of the restaurant had no knowledge that the rent was not being paid, said Freeman.

There has been enormous amounts of interest towards the property according to Freeman, who added that a new brand should be opening soon. There is also effort being made to salvage the jobs of those who worked at the location previously.

“We are doing everything we can to make the best of this location despite the circumstances that El Taco imposed upon the new owners of the building,” said Freeman.