Post #303788 by Dr.TikiMojo on Thu, May 3, 2007 11:36 AM

On 2007-05-03 10:35, Swanky wrote:

These arguments are ridiculous. And many of the things that are done in the name of preservation are anti-business. Is the Mai Kai on the register of historic places? No. They would fight that tooth and nail.

No one seems to be looking at this situation rightly. You own the Beverly Hills Trader Vic's franchise. It cost you many millions to buy. Every month, you are losing many thousands of dollars because business is slow. The property is, luckily, very valuable. There is a board meeting and an offer is made and you decide that it is time to stop the losses by selling. Maybe the previous owner used the place to offset a lot of capital gains they had. Maybe the property has remained becuase it was used as a tax shelter and has always been waiting for a buy out to make it worth dumping for another loser investment. Check the records. Did it change owners every 5 years? The IRS won't let you keep a losing investment forever...

On 2007-05-03 08:08, christiki295 wrote:
I have been there probably over a dozen times in the last couple of years and can attest there was no lack of patronage, either at the bar or the restaurant.

NOPE the Mai Kai is not on the National Register of Historic Places......that was where I decided to quit posting on my thread....after listening to the same people who whine about losing their historic Tiki locations then turn around and say in complete ignorance "but we KNOW the family that owns the Mai Kai and if they want to sell and make a few bucks after all their years of hard work then what right do we have to take that from them!"
That's where the problems started!
Number one just because a property is Historically Registered not only does it NOT prevent someone from selling it and making a profit it just protects the property from being torn down or changed without approval and EVEN THEN that doesn't stop the wrecking ball....I can't tell you how many Historic sites around the San Francisco Bay Area have met their makers due to new updating of earthquake codes!

The closure/sale of Trader Vic's Beverly Hills was simply about greed and making more money in the short term....no one was "losing" any money there.

A Historically Protected site pretty much helps the little guys, (the public), to at least stand up to the BIG Guys....City Developers, Walmart, Walgreens, Hotel Chains and so on, long enough to have a say in what they can and can't do with a protected property.....often times chasing them away for easier pickings!

I would say that if the over all attitude persists we can say good bye to the Mai Kai within the next few years!

Here are some other Historically Significant designs that as time and tastes changed people just saw fit to bulldoze them and put in more houses on less land.....it bugs me to no end!

Eichler Homes, the company run by Joseph Eichler from 1949 to 1966, built more than 10,000 homes in the San Francisco area and about 900 in Southern California.

http://totheweb.com/eichler/

Googie architecture was born of the post-WWII car-culture and thrived in the 1950s and 1960s. Bold angles, colorful signs, plate glass, sweeping cantilevered roofs and pop-culture imagery captured the attention of drivers on adjacent streets.

http://www.spaceagecity.com/googie/