The owners of the ResortWear boutique at the Seminole Paradise retail complex at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida said they will not close, despite pressure from their landlord, Seminole Properties Retail LLC. Tamir Wershaw and his sister Malka Livingston said their lease runs through 2020 but Seminole Properties Retail sent them an eviction notice stating they must leave by April 14.
Attorney Robert Stok, representing Wershaw and Livingston, said his clients want another location and fair compensation for losses they have suffered while the casino-resort proceeds with a $1 billion dollar expansion. “It’s hit the road jack, get out! That’s not the basis of a negotiation, that’s the basis of a war,” Stok said. The expansion will include an 800-room guitar-shaped luxury hotel and create more than 2,900 new jobs.
Wershaw and Livingston said they have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their business. They said Seminole Properties Retail has refused to negotiate a buyout agreement. Wershaw said cranes, fences and construction surround the store. “I’m in the middle of a demolition zone. I think I’m going to come there one day and the building will be demolished and all my merchandise will be in the garbage,” he said. All of the stores around them have closed or are getting ready to.
Seminole Tribe of Florida spokesman Gary Bitner said most other tenants have settled and Seminole Properties Retail was resolving lease issues with others. However, Bitner said, “This tenant’s financial demands make that difficult, but we have presented a new counteroffer.”
