Unfortunate Turn of Events

We finally heard back from McCarthy Properties about the lease.  It turns out "that the potentially negative impacts of a restaurant , as you have now described it, on the residential component of the building outweigh its benefits to our overall business."  Interesting.  Apparently, we "have now described it" exactly the way we originally described it to them but it somehow seems different to them now.  This was how one of our last conversations via email ended:

"...Hello Elizabeth & Dan. We are all set to proceed and all are very enthused and all think the menu is a winner! Just what the block/neighborhood has been waiting for! A few details about the construction for you to consider and I will be in touch with you tomorrow..."  

Slightly hypocritical, just slightly.

This was sent on the 15th of July.  She did not get back to us until Friday the 22nd saying she would have their response to the lease negotiations on the 25th .  Then on the 25th we received an email saying the property management company was still working on the lease will have it by the 26th.  No response.  On the 28th we opened an email saying "Will email you this evening."  Of course we didn't received an email until today saying they did not want a restaurant in their space.

No one should be surprised to hear that I am more than a little annoyed with the McCarthy family right now.  Needless to say this was a display of poor professionalism.  First they rushed us into "committing to the space."  We did and put together a concept and informed them of our plan.  They loved the idea and so we proceeded.  Then after ok-ing the concept, they threw a curveball (right before were to start lease negotiations) by requiring an unnecessary hood which would raise our construction costs by $25,000 +.  We told them this would be a deal breaker and we could only proceed it they were ok with the hood we were set to install, which of course was completely up to code.  They ok-ed the hood and so we moved forward.  They were now on us to sign a lease.  Even though they kept changing their construction timeline and plan, we still managed to proceed promptly with our side of the lease negotiations.  Keep in mind all the while this back and forth was happening, we kept receiving emails with phrases like "optimistic the BLG's GRUB will soon be opening on Pleasant Street" and "enthused" and "extremely excited for a restaurant."  All to end like this.

At least for us the only thing we lost was time, energy and a temporary smile.  We have immediately turned our focus into looking for another location for our concept, if anybody knows of a good spot...