This is it, Nam Seo “George” Koo?s last stand. He’s drawn a line in the sand at 210 West Lexington St., which houses Koo?s anchor store and warehouse known as New York Fashions.
He?s vowed to stay there until Baltimore City officials literally cut his head off to remove him to make way for their Superblock development plans.
“When the city made the announcement that they would deliver my father?s property to the Weinbergs [Foundation] before December, my dad turned to me and said, ?so when do I start paying rent to the Weinbergs?? ” his son Linn Koo said.
Liken Koo to General George Custer or make him the next small business owner martyr. His fight to retain the land and property he has owned for nearly 20 years is a story riddled with deception, greed, power and ultimately the systematic disappearance of the small business owner and working class shopper from the city?s central business district.
“No one from the city, not the mayor or our city council has contacted us, just the BDC,” said Koo, who interpreted and translated for his father. “[BDC] has the ultimate power to decide which businesses are to stay in the city it seems. They have given us false hope, misled us and left us feeling like we were the victims of a bait and switch scam.”
Koo was referring to Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) Executive Director M.J. “Jay” Brodie?s promises. Over the past nine years Brodie and the BDC, working on behalf of Baltimore City, have sent the Koo?s mixed messages.
“First they said we could stay at this location, then they offered us a land swap,” he said. “We could stay and sign over 3,000 square feet of our 35,000 square foot building in exchange for the old abandoned Foot Locker store on Lexington.”
Koo said his father agreed and Brodie prepared a contract and had it hand-delivered giving the Koo?s a deadline to sign and return the papers which they did. However one hour before the deal was toclose, Brodie called them back and said the deal was off.
Brodie would not return calls to The Examiner and directed his staff that no one could talk to the paper but him.
“I never believed this could happen in America,” George Koo said. “I built this business from the ground up. I came here from Korea with only $2,000 and now the City wants to take my American dream.”
“The City is condemning Koo for the Weinbergs,” said eminent domain legal guru John Murphy, Koo?s attorney. “I think there is some sort of social engineering agenda of the types of shoppers the City wants downtown. Koo may not be a Saks Fifth Avenue, but he has quite a following of shoppers.”
“I want to make sure the process [eminent domain] is fair and open for Mr. Koo,” Baltimore City Councilman and mayoral candidate Keiffer Mitchell said. “We need small businesses in the city.”
“My business was once a million dollar business now its down to $250,000 a year and my lawyers bills over $100,000,” Koo said. “This is my store. My country. I stay to the end.”
