Pinkberry Yogurt, just south of SMB on Huntley Drive in West Hollywood, is an example of every entrepreneur’s dream come true. Owner Sherry (Hye Kyung) Hwang leased a small building just steps below Santa Monica Blvd. on the end of a quiet street hoping to open a wine and cheese restaurant. 
This yogurt shop has sold more yogurt to more people than the neighbors can stand. Pinkberry’s very success has brought consternation to the entire block. By Marcus Fant. |
The permission to do so was denied, mostly due to a lack of parking for that business. Ms. Hwang changed her business plan and opened a Pinkberry Yogurt, a firm that has developed a fanatically loyal following and is expanding to six stores soon in California.
Roughly eight months after Ms. Hwang opened her small shop in WeHo, the Pinkberry fanatics located her and word spread, bringing a deluge of business to a once quiet street corner.
But because of that lack of parking for Pinkberry, neighbors found themselves unable to park on their own street, ran into congestion caused by double-parking, encircling the block or making Y-turns and other impediments and began to find refuse littering their yards each morning.
The neighbors, already made sensitive to long-running impacts on their quality of life from the MTA station abutting most of the street south of Santa Monica and others, rose up for the third time in the past 18 months to complain about and agitate for removal of the business.
Suddenly, Ms. Hwang found herself the victim of her incredible success – neighbors called parking enforcement and the agency, responding to constituent’s valid complaints, began issuing tickets by the scores each day. The total number of tickets issued since March at the corner of Huntley and Santa Monica approach four figures, according to former city council member Stephen Martin, “That’s a huge financial windfall for the city.”
Pinkberry. By Marcus Fant. |
The neighbors’ complaints wended their way up the political chain until the City Council found itself compelled to act, and so directed the Business License Commission to look into ways to help Pinkberry mitigate the impacts of the business’s success on the immediate neighborhood.
From Pinkberry’s standpoint, they are the victims of circumstance and have done no wrong. “Here is the kind of business the city wants here, phenomenally successful, and now they want to re-condition her permits because she’s successful?” asked Sandy Hutchens, spokesperson for Pinkberry.
The commission hearing was very well attended, with 27 speakers, according to the minutes sent out the following day. Roughly 1/3 of the speakers were neighborhood nay Sayers while the balance were supporters of Pinkberry.
Because one large part of the neighbor’s complaints applied to traffic and parking, issues that stand outside the Business Licensing Commission’s purview, the commission asked staff to investigate replacement of a permit parking sign on Huntley, the possibility of towing violators of the permit district, and investigate the possibility of limited access to Huntley.
A view showing some of the signage and parking mitigations necessary to the smooth operation of the business. By Marcus Fant |
Otherwise, the commission threw in with the plan already hashed out between city and Pinkberry and implemented by all, with only one change. That change is in the hours of operations for the store, pulling them back to 10:00 pm on Sunday through Thursday from 11:00 pm while leaving the regular 11:00 am to 11:00 pm hours on Friday and Saturday.
Sandy Hutchens, spokesperson for Ms. Hwang, told WeHoNews.com that the decision to compel closure an hour earlier would cut into the business’s bottom line, and for no apparent reason. “Pinkberry’s permit allows them to remain open until 2 a.m. as it is,” he said, “Shelly closes at 11 o'clock already, and voluntarily. It’s a dessert restaurant – yogurt – she’s not selling alcohol, drugs or sex and has never been cited for any code violation,” he said.
Mr. Martin, who lives down the block from the shop on Huntley, told WeHoNews.com that the neighbors were disappointed that the traffic and parking issues they brought before the commission were un-addressed. “With all the three-point turns, the double parking and the congestion at the corner of Santa Monica, it’s far more difficult to get out of my neighborhood nowadays.
“Closing an hour earlier on weekdays won’t solve that because this happens all day long. The business should be located elsewhere with better approaches and parking,” he said. “Closing early merely creates a hardship on Shelly and her clients who want someplace nice to bring the family after dinner.”
Mr. Hutchens warned that the neighbors would not be satisfied with parking and traffic problems unresolved. “This will be appealed to the council and become an even bigger story yet,” he said. “But in the next 60 days there will six new stores opening in the nearby area, and so within 90 days the traffic and parking stresses at Huntley should dissipate.”
In other Pinkberry news, a site named Savannah Commercial Real Estate posted the following item on June 14, 2006 – “West Coast-based frozen yogurt chain Pinkberry Yogurt signed an 11-year, 1,215 sf lease at 10 W. 33rd St. Pinkberry Yogurt has developed a large, loyal following in California and is expanding to New York.
David Levy of Adams & Co. [handled] both sides of the transaction. Although details of the lease were undisclosed, asking rents were $140 per square foot.
The 12-story, 319,200-square-foot building boasts a tenant roster that includes American Marketing Enterprise, Barganza and Global Design Concepts. Retail tenants include Jim Hanley's Universe and Spa Sol. The building features new elevators and windows.”
Apparently West Hollywood isn’t the only place people are clamoring to buy the yogurt, not if Pinkberry can spend $1.87 million on a New York store lease.
For the latest news on Pinkberry, click here Pinkberry: No Appeal Angers Many (Vol. 2, Iss. 4 - Sept. 28, 2006).
For opinions on the controversy from two attorneys living on the street (one a former-city council member), check these two links...THE DONE DEAL: Check$ and Balance$ and...
WeHo Bought and Paid For.
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