Retailers face eviction by Seattle U.

SEATTLE – Seattle University plans to evict several Ethiopian retailers who have refused to leave a former warehouse the Jesuit school owns and wants to use for storage right now.

Some business owners argue that they have a right to remain, citing lease agreements they signed under previous ownership and that extends beyond July. They also say more time is needed to find alternative sites and that a move now would be poorly timed.

“This is the busiest time for me; everyone has festivals,” said David Fanta, a commercial sign-maker. “This is the time to make money.”

Retailers have through the weekend to the leave the property on East Cherry Street, opposite the school’s campus. If they don’t, officials will begin eviction proceedings early this week, university counsel Catherine Walker said.

“It’s a liability exposure to the university. We are the property owners, and they are on the property without leases,” Walker said. “I think it’s too bad, but I also know the (legal) process is there to resolve these disagreements.”

David Butler, an attorney representing Fanta and two other retailers, contends university officials have bullied tenants to leave and were “reckless” because they did not research all tenancy arrangements before buying the property. He faxed a copy of the lease agreement to university lawyers on Thursday.

Walker said she hadn’t seen the document yet but believes it’s not valid because it is an agreement with a third-party group – not the former landowners.

Retailers moved into the building about four years ago. There are now at least six businesses that include a hair-braiding salon, a tailor and a nonprofit counseling center for the Ethiopian community. Last December, Seattle University bought the property for $2 million at an auction.

Tenants haven’t been required to pay rent or utilities since January. And the university, after setting an initial March deadline, gave retailers until July to move out – which some have.

But Tsegaye Milke, another of Butler’s clients who sells traditional wedding dresses, drums and other memorabilia, says he’s not going anywhere.

“This is the hub of the Ethiopian community,” Milke said. “We have nowhere else to go.”