Midwood Investment and Development, developer of the Sportsmen’s Lodge upscale store in Studio City, has partially settled a lawsuit against luxury grocer Erewhon.
In September, Midwood sued Erewhon — a part-time influencer hangout shop — claiming the store failed to pay at least four months’ rent and overused the retail center’s car park, court documents show.
Erouwan fight back In its own lawsuit, it alleges that Midwood omitted facts in lease negotiations, improperly increased rent and denied parking to Erewhon’s employees.
“This is the story of a New York developer engaging in a ruthless, illegal, bait-and-switch scheme to defraud tenants,” Erewhon wrote in his cross-complaint. Midwood has denied Erewhon’s allegations.
Now the two parties have “resolved a dispute over the use of on-site employee parking spaces,” according to a filing in Los Angeles Superior Court late last month. Neither Erewhon nor Midwood responded to requests for comment.
Some parts of the lawsuit are still ongoing.
Erewhon signed a 15-year lease for the 11,650-square-foot property back in 2018, three years before it finally opened, court documents show.
Under the lease, Erewhon agreed to pay the first month’s rent of $55,350 for the front office space, plus about $7,900 for the back office — a total of about $63,250, according to a copy of the original lease that accompanied the complaint.
Midwood initially claimed Erewhon allowed its employees to park for free on site but was not entitled to do so.
According to emails provided in court documents, Erewhon pushed for Midwood to include a specific clause in its lease that would allow employees to park, but never finalized it.
Erewhon CEO Tony Antoci allegedly told Midwood’s then head of west coast operations, Michael Gambino, in 2017: “I don’t care about parking for my employees — They can park as far away as they can, I don’t care how much they pay.” October 2021, according to Cambino’s handwritten notes attached as court exhibit earlier this year.
In September, Midwood notified all tenants that it would require all employees at all stores to park off-site and commute to work in vans, according to a notice in the courtroom exhibit.
Earlier this year, Erewhon opened a shop at Hackman Capital Partners’ Culver Steps development in Culver City. The chain also has locations in Silver Lake, Santa Monica, Calabasas, Venice, Pacific Palisades and Beverly Grove, with plans to open in Pasadena.
