The Lot: Food truck controversy

Organizers at The Lot, the downtown Asheville venue for food truck operators, posted the following as an open letter today on their Facebook page:

Dear City of Asheville and supporters of food trucks, we are asking for help,

As of October 1st, 2014, The Lot at 51 Coxe Avenue will be under new management. This is not a voluntary change of leadership.

The first and only food truck lot in Asheville was started a few years ago by some of the first food truck owners in Asheville. We banded together to find a place where we would be able to share our passion for food with the public and bring something new and exciting to Asheville. As many of you know, it was a long hard fight to get downtown, and all of us as food trucks were thrilled to finally have a home!

Earlier this year, The Asheville Street Food Coalition (the small group of food trucks who help manage day to day activities at The Lot) approached the owner of the property at 51 Coxe Avenue about the possibility of renting the small building on the Lot. The plan was to put a coffee shop/taproom in the building. This would have let us bring in more revenue due to a more welcoming environment and extended days and hours. It would also have added sorely needed seating for our loyal customers, bathrooms, and even a commissary kitchen which would allow the food trucks more ease in running their businesses. Our plans were basically an awesome Austin-style food truck lot with outdoor seating, local bands and events, and a rotating roster of the best trucks in Asheville. Our dream.

At first the property owners seemed very excited and supportive of our idea. So much so, that by the second meeting, the idea strangely became theirs. The owner’s girlfriend at the time (now wife) showed up and announced that she would like to be the manager of the food truck lot, scheduling trucks and collecting rents. They wanted to partner with us, but refused to talk about money or any details about what they would bring to the table, and seemed to have no ideas or plans whatsoever other than rewording our ideas and calling them their own after each meeting. After ascertaining that they had no experience in customer service, no experience in the restaurant industry, and no experience with food trucks, we declined their offer. This was due mostly to the fact that there was no money to pay someone to do said work and there was no space for another “business partner”. We collect rent from the food trucks every month, which covers rent to the the aforementioned landlord, our electrical power, and very little else.

The property owner’s response to this was to inform us that we could not have the building at The Lot. They were also not interested in renewing our lease. They implied that without the lease and without partnering with them, the food trucks of Asheville may not have a place at 51 Coxe anymore. (i.e threats) They also then claimed that they came up with the taproom/coffee shop idea long before we did, that they were going ahead with their plan anyway, and we could work with them, but our future there was still in question.

After a long series of unproductive and frustrating meetings with these people, the ASFC offered two reasonable plans to the owners in hopes of moving forward as best we could together. In the first scenario, we continue managing the food truck lot and pay them rent as they continued to go forward with “their” taproom plan for the building, basically a continuation of the status quo. In the second plan, we offered the idea that they could actually fairly compensate us for an extremely reasonable amount of money (making them the owners and managers of The Lot as a business ). This would just cover what we put into architectural plans, landscaping, lights, power polls, the countless hours and money spent dealing with permitting, the electrical hook up, the huge beautiful planter boxes we installed, and of course would allow them to have our intellectual property, all of our social media influence such as our Facebook page with 3000+ followers and not to mention 3 years worth of loyal, repeat customers that we have built as the base of our business.

Their response was two of their own “proposals.” One, we could go forward with our plan to rent the building and lot as we attempted to do several months previously, but at an obscenely inflated price at the beginning of the leanest time of year for food trucks (fall/winter), that would assure our failure. Proposal Two laid out that if we did not accept Proposal One they would just take over running our food truck lot because we no longer have a lease, nor any legal protection from their actions.

They also had no intention of compensating us for any of the improvements we made to The Lot. In fact, when pressed, they scoffed and offered us nothing.

We are reaching out to our supportive food truck loving local community to help us find a new home! Anyone who may have space, please reach out to the food truck community! The food trucks owners are all honest, hardworking people doing their best to bring something wonderful to the city of Asheville. Many of them will be staying on with the new “managers” of The Lot out of the economic necessity of paying their bills and feeding their families, not because of a desire to work under these people. As soon as another lot is available most, if not all of the trucks, have expressed interest and desire to leave 51 Coxe behind if it is not run by and for food trucks. As much as it pains us to say so, please continue supporting the food trucks despite this unfortunate turn of events with the new owners, who have acquired the food truck lot in such an extremely unethical manner. All help and suggestions are appreciated. We love you all. thanks for everything you’ve already done to support us.

The Lot’s Facebook page will remain active for the time being as we encourage public comments, suggestions, and discourse.

The Asheville Street Food Coalition.