Wheelz Skate Arena, one of Pierce County’s few roller skating rinks, abruptly went out of business last week after almost three years.
Owner Debbie Berg said this week that she did her best to contact people who had events scheduled at the rink in Fircrest through the end of the year, when she planned to go out of business since she’s been unable to find a loan to keep going.
“I don’t have that many deposits. I don’t intend to keep anyone’s money,” she said. In an interview, Berg repeated what she told customers last week through email, phone recordings and Facebook postings: Wheelz is closing because its landlord raised the rent.
“The landlord wouldn’t work with us,” the recording says when customers call the rink.
But documents in the Bergs’ personal bankruptcy case, filed about a month ago, indicate that she and her husband, Dave, are more than a year behind on rent payments for Wheelz. Other public records show Wheelz has owed the state about $112,000 in taxes since 2009, when it opened, though the bankruptcy filing indicates the Bergs have a payment plan with the Department of Revenue.
The owner of the building that houses the roller rink, Bruce Bodine, said this week that he did everything he could to keep Wheelz open, short of running the business himself.
“They’re the ones that didn’t honor the agreement. We worked with them for two years. They’re currently $250,000-plus behind on the rent,” Bodine said. “We were disappointed that Wheelz is closing. That’s not what we wanted.
“As of today we’ve only received one payment in six months, of $500,” he said. “What’s this complaint about the landlord raising the rent when (they’re) not paying it?”
Berg and her husband opened Wheelz in 2009 at 2101 S. Mildred St., on the border with Tacoma and University Place. The approximately 42,500-square-foot facility started out as the “Thrill-Zone Sports Center” in 2004, when Bodine turned an old die-cast aluminum plant into a retail center and indoor skate park. It now houses several businesses in addition to Wheelz, including a dance studio, a tutoring business and an auto-repair shop.
Bodine’s main business is Maxi-Space Storage and Business Solutions, which has seven locations of mini-storage and small retail spaces in Pierce and Kitsap counties. Bodine has been in business since 1979 and counts about 300 small business among his tenants.
“Our typical tenant is just starting out,” he said. “Some of those tenants over the last three years have not been viable. They just aren’t strong enough to make it through this difficult economy.
“Some of them are what I consider to be viable tenants but might get a little bit behind on their rent,” he said. “Those are the ones that we really try to take under our wing and help out, and Debbie was one of those.”
In late 2008, Bodine and the Bergs signed a five-year lease for the rink, with monthly payments starting at about $18,000 and increasing annually to about $20,000 a month in 2013. Commercial brokers in Pierce County not associated with the property said that rate for retail space is quite low, probably reflecting the unusual configuration of a skating rink.
But it’s still quite an expense for a new business, something reflected in Berg’s remarks during her interview Monday.
“The lease rate is extremely high. It was high when we went in. But we figured, we’ve been in this business 30 years, and we know what we’re doing,” she said. “We even had a marketing company come and look at what we were doing, and they said, ‘You’re doing ever ything you can.’”
When asked for more details on that past business experience, she said she and her husband had run a rink for a decade, including one in Parkland, before they opened Wheelz; and had worked in the roller sports industry before that. David Berg is a five-time National Figure Skating Champion as sanctioned by USA Roller Sports of Lincoln, Neb.
Berg said she asked Bodine last fall to lower the rent, something he disputes.
“Debbie Berg never once came to us and asked us for a rent reduction,” he said Monday.
Berg said 2011 has been “the worst year ever. I was already behind. Because I got behind, I had to file bankruptcy.”
It was that filing that led to Bodine locking the doors on Wheelz last week, he said. The Bergs filed under Chapter 7 of the federal code, which is a liquidation. It gives the court permission to sell everything to satisfy creditors.
A court official “told us to secure the premises. That’s when we came in and had a locksmith do that,” he said. “The bankruptcy trustee is in control of those assets. Her instructions to us were firm. ‘I want the assets secured.’”
Bodine locked up Wheelz on Dec. 13, Berg said, preventing her from getting any of the books or other contact information for customers.
“I have a skating club. Kids have skates inside the building, and he has no right to keep those,” she said. “Parents have been calling. The kids need skates to practice.”
It’s unclear what will happen to such property. The trustee came to Wheelz on Tuesday and inventoried its contents.
Bodine said Maxi-Space’s specialty is working with and supporting small businesses, and the situation with Wheelz won’t change that. He said his properties were almost fully occupied.
“If landlords can believe in their tenants, I think we’d have fewer for-lease signs everywhere,” he said.
Kathleen Cooper: 253-597-8546
kathleen.cooper@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/business
Twitter: @KCooperTNT
CLARIFICATION: A Page One article on Dec. 22 about the closure of Wheelz Skate Arena in Fircrest imprecisely recounted the nature of back taxes related to Wheelz. Based on clarifying information from the state of Washington, approximately $98,000 of the about $112,000 in back taxes attached to Wheelz’s business license is inherited from a previous skating rink owned by Wheelz owner Debbie Berg. Before opening Wheelz, Berg owned a rink in Parkland that the state says collected, but did not then turn over, state sales tax. The Parkland rink closed, and the warrant for those back taxes was transferred to Berg’s new business, Wheelz.
