Bad Moe, Good Moe

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In August, Sacramento Superior Court issued a preliminary ruling siding with Mohanna, indicating that the trade no longer represented equal value. The judge later awarded Mohanna $42,000 in attorney's fees. The suit was still ongoing as Prosper went to press.

Mohanna is countersuing the city, claiming the evictions and demolitions have cost him more than $40,000 a month in lost rent -- more than half a million dollars at this point. He is also suing Zeiden, claiming that negligent upkeep of the adjacent building at 812 K helped transients access Mohanna's property and start the fire.

The legal battle has tarnished Mohanna's reputation in the city. Or, perhaps, it has simply brought to the surface long-standing concerns about a major property owner. For example, online comments posted after a July column about Mohanna in the Sacramento Bee called him everything from a slumlord to a hero for standing up to the city and the implied threat of taking his property by eminent domain.

Fritzsche, who has worked for the city for about 20 years, says Mohanna's reputation is a "mixed bag." She says that, long before the fire, one of his downtown buildings became so rundown it had to be demolished.

Mohanna says the idea that he has been a negligent landlord is unfounded. Most of the properties he bought, he says, were vacant and dilapidated. Mohanna says he consistently fixes them up and gets tenants in the buildings. In most cases, he says, he was satisfying whatever the market supported at the time. Some of his new -- and higher-income -- tenants in other buildings include Temple Fine Coffee and Tea on 10th Street and the new Crepe Cafe on K Street next to Mohanna's management office.

"Rehabbing, revitalizing, remodeling is in my blood," he says. "I love it. I've done it since I was a kid. It's the way I made my money. Persians usually restore buildings. It's part of the history."

Two Visions

The land-swap deal emerged after the city received two responses to its request for proposals on those sections of K Street. Both Zeiden and Mohanna had property claims in the two blocks, and rather than try to pick one over the other, redevelopment officials decided to work with both.

Zeiden's vision is to attract high-end retailers with a mix of national names and distinctive local vendors, says Zeiden's chief planning consultant, Wendy Hoyt. He would likely move his Z Gallerie store from the mall to K Street and then seek out other retailers like bookstores or restaurants.

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