September 16, 2004

Quiznos Sub restaurant opens in Almaden amidst controversy
Owner claims city’s building division is anti-small business

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

An Almaden small business owner is accusing the city’s building division of imposing difficult regulations that delayed the opening of his sandwich shop costing him thousands of dollars and discouraging him from opening another store in the city.

Vijay Patel, 35, owner of Quiznos Sub, a submarine sandwich franchise in San Jose, says it took him more than six months to open his restaurant because of building and permit inspection delays and complications.

The interruptions cost Patel more than $26,000 in rent, according to Patel and delayed the opening until June 30 at the Almaden Plaza Shopping Center, 5353 Almaden Expressway. He initially submitted plans to the building division in November of 2003.

Because Patel signed a lease agreement with the center October 2003 and only had 120 days to move in and begin doing business, he was forced to pay rent during months he was trying to bring the 1,700-square-foot store’s $260,000 construction project into compliance with building and planning code.

Although Patel said he had a diligent contractor trying to carefully follow regulations, city planners, who issue the permits, and city inspectors, who review compliance, found mechanical errors in his building plan that postponed the opening of his restaurant.

Dennis Richardson, the new director of the city’s building division, acknowledged that regulations imposed in the permit process are sometimes perceived as being difficult. He said the city has made a lot of improvements over the years in how the process works, but conceded there is still room for improvement.

“We want small businesses to succeed. We need to hear the concerns, look at the organization and figure out where we’re not providing the level of service that is expected,” he said.

Richardson, who’s been involved in building permits in the public and private sector, added that sometimes small-business owners have trouble getting through the permit process. “I’m not saying this is what happened in this case, but sometimes small business owners are not as sophisticated as developers who do a lot of construction projects. They don’t quite know some of the ins and outs of the permit process and sometimes they run into trouble. That’s one of the challenges that we have. We need to figure out how to be more helpful with customers who don’t do development as their full-time occupation.”

Richardson expressed concern for merchants like Patel who literally put everything on the line to open new businesses. “Sometimes it seems like they’re rolling the dice. It’s very stressful for them because if there’s a hiccup in the process it translates to dollars and cents when it’s the most vulnerable time for their business.

“One of my challenges in coming here is to figure out how we can be better ambassadors through the permit process when they’re vulnerable. It’s a good discussion to have with our staff and customers. We’re trying to mentor our staff to be more effective problem solvers.”

Patel’s building obstacles began when plans he submitted to the division on Dec. 22 came to a standstill until late February, when he finally obtained his building permit. He says city planner Jerry Yoshida raised concerns about a parking analysis conducted by the center’s property manager. Patel was forced to conduct another parking analysis by hiring an independent analyst from Manteca and paying more than $1,200.

“The primary issue was parking. The city felt that for the volume of customers I would attract, that not enough parking would be available,” Patel said, pointing to a nearly empty parking lot in front of his business around lunchtime.

Other merchants at the center, who didn’t want to be identified, said the city’s building division has always had problems with the center’s landlord who owns several shopping centers worldwide.

“It took me an entire month just to get those permits approved,” Patel said of demolition and construction permits he needed to begin his project, adding that by then he had to pay his monthly $6,500 rent. He paid rent in March, April, May and June, with zero revenue returns—about $26,000.

He says that money was his reserve to open because normally new small businesses don’t make a profit during their first three to six months of operation.

Patel, who lives in Morgan Hill, said he also had to pay more than $1,000 in overtime inspections, plus his time, which required him to personally visit division offices, pay fees and wait for inspectors to arrive.

One error never caught on time, which was included in the mechanical plans approved by the city, was the installation of the wrong sewer line. “It was an ongoing circle. This one cost me more than three weeks of construction delays where the inspector came out two times to tell us we had the wrong size and wrong type of pipe,” he said.

On June 28, two days before his expected opening, a building inspector informed Patel he had several concerns, including the need to close a hole that was made to the roof to install a second air conditioner for the business.

Richardson said his inspector told him Patel didn’t want to finish the roof and was going to ask the center’s owner to do the work. The inspector then told Patel that if he closed the permit for the restaurant, the owner would need to get a permit to complete the deferred work.

Patel, however, says he was working with the center’s contractor, Alliance Roofing, to close the hole, but was still asked to get the permit.

Mark Thomas, director of construction for the Quiznos Sub in the western region, made calls to Vice Mayor Pat Dando’s office, complaining about the ninth hour setback. In the meantime, Patel sent his contractor to get the roofing permit and was told by planners he didn’t need one to repair the roof.

“I don’t feel, as a small business owner, that I have to go through these hoops and hurdles to open a small store,” he complained.

Patel said other Quiznos franchise owners, with stores in Santa Clara, have reported no problems. “It seems when it comes to San Jose, there are so many limitations to open a business.”

On June 29, while Patel was busy getting the roofing permit, building inspector Patrick Lydon visited the store and signed off the permits without saying a word to Patel’s contractors or to him about it.

“That was kind of a bizarre. He didn’t look at anything, didn’t speak to anyone. That puzzled me. I’m wondering what happened,” he said. “It was a strange turn of events.”

Richardson, for his part, said inspectors try to be cordial to customers, but sometimes sign permits when business owners are not around and leave to go attend to other projects.

For now, Patel is working hard and hoping to catch up on his revenue loss. He has high hopes for his small sandwich shop because the center will attract more customers when Trader Joe’s and Till’s open at the center sometime this fall. “I hope it will help the entire plaza. We’ll do cross marketing to promote ourselves.”

About his ordeal with the city, Patel said, “It discourages me from actually looking at a second project. There are a lot of opportunities in this city, but if I have to go through these hurdles again, I would rather look at Santa Clara as a more viable option.

“I think a lot of other store owners are in the same situation. We’re very discouraged by San Jose. We don’t want to do more business in San Jose.”

Patel’s family is well known in the Bay Area. Many of his relatives own several Comfort Inn and Days Inn motels in San Francisco.

Richardson emphasized that the city wants to encourage small businesses to relocate in the city and appreciates hearing from them as to how the division can improve the permit process. “Sometimes business owners are afraid to call us for fear of retribution, but in reality they need to let us know their concerns in a timely manner so that we can help find solutions to their problems,” Richardson said.

As the owner of the Quiznos franchise, Patel has a license to own and operate four restaurants. He’s looking at other locations to open the others, possibly one at the intersection of Blossom Hill and Snell roads or one at the Oakridge Mall.

With his wife expecting their firstborn next month, Patel said the ordeal cost him $26,000 and left him emotionally drained. “My wife has been stressed by all of this. We now have one income instead of two. I’m trying to keep it together. I’ve told her to focus on her pregnancy and being well.

“Some people are telling me to forget about it and let it go, but I worry about it when I go to my next project,” he said. “I know I won’t make the same mistakes next time, but am I still going to have the same issues and will my business counterparts have the same problems I did?”