$35K of Crowdsourcing for West Park Food Hall Spent on Salary — Landlord Says He Never Had Agreement

$35K of Crowdsourcing for West Park Food Hall Spent on Salary — Landlord Says He Never Had Agreement

More charges and counter-charges are being levied in the controversy surrounding the use of funds for the West Park Food Hall.

On Monday, project founder David Dadekian responded to claims by former colleague Katie Kleyla. A statement from Kleyla's attorney had requested an accounting of more than $100,000 after she was left with just $14,000 of the more than $123,000 raised by the Kickstarter effort.

And, the owner of the building intended for the location of the food hall property said he never had an agreement in place with Dadekian or Kleyla. 

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In a statement, Dadekian said that $35,000 of the funds went to Kleyla's salary -- despite the use of the funds raised by the Kickstarter being limited to site planning and development of the property.

"I feel it is important to make clear my time as the incorporator for and half owner of West Park Food Hall Inc. and why my name remains as such on the Secretary of State’s database. I have transferred my half ownership, including all documentation and assets, to Katie Kleyla when we parted ways over six months ago. As a result of the transfer, I have no control over the corporation nor can I update the records at the Secretary of State’s Office.  Despite a request to Ms. Kleyla’s attorney for her to update the records at the Secretary of State’s Office, she has not done so," said Dadekain in a statement. 

To add further confusion to the project, the Boston-based owner of the property Monty Gold says that the property was never under Dadekian's control. 

"I can tell you I have no agreements with David or Katie," said Gold when reached on Monday. "Something happened, I couldn't get [out of] either of them exactly what happened, but I understand that David signed over the [West Park Food Hall] rights to Katie."

Statement

Dadekian added the following. 

The entirety of the West Park Food Hall project was operated as a partnership between Ms. Kleyla and me. Every email and document that one or both [of] us wrote was signed by the two of us. We always referred to each other as partners or co-founders. While Eat Drink RI has always been and remains solely my business, all business decisions for West Park Food Hall were done collaboratively. This includes choosing vendors, products and the expenditure of funds.

I turned over all records to Ms. Kleyla’s lawyer in October. A full accounting of the use of the funds is contained in the documents they already have in their possession. After paying Kickstarter fees and private investors there was a total of $83,390 paid to West Park Food Hall Inc. As Ms. Kleyla’s lawyer stated, she received $14,500 of that in October. Of the remaining $68,890, $35,000 was used to pay Ms. Kleyla’s salary. Around $6,000 was used to fulfill Kickstarter rewards. The remaining amount was used to pay a real estate consultant, a branding and logo designer, preliminary architecture designs and legal fees. All of these amounts were discussed and mutually decided upon by Ms. Kleyla and me. Ms. Kleyla and I had a business parting of ways. I wish her well in all her endeavors going forward.

Dadekian did not respond to questions as to how the Kickstarter funds could be used for salary purposes — or towards work on the building, which Dadekian and Kleyla do not own. 

The Kickstarter campaign said the funds raised would go to the following. 

* Refine pro forma
* Architectural design
* Site improvement specific to the Food Hall and production floor
* Branding, logo design
* Legal: lease structure, permits and licensing

Building Owner on Record

"I'm relatively frustrated -- I'm capable of doing [this] myself and I'm leaning towards doing it now," said Gold. "The last project I did was going to be a small group of stores in Jamaica Plain, and then I found some guys to do a brewery. They're in the neighborhood, they did all the work, and I participated just financially. I agreed to pay x amount of dollars and it worked out."

"Doing this other thing [in Rhode Island] is an enormous amount of work. I live in Boston, but I grew up in Cranston and I really like the building," said Gold. "[The last I spoke with them], they said that many of the people [involved in the Kickstarter] are still interested in doing it. I've also got two to three breweries coming in this weekend to look at the space."

"I don't know how [Kickstarters] work," said Gold. "I''m old fashioned. If you do the deal, you have the money and you put it up. You don't go looking to the city or state."

"And no matter how much money you have -- [people] still go to the city or state [in Rhode Island]," said Gold. "Providence should be the Brooklyn of Boston -- not that it couldn't be. All I know is I have to finish this project."