Letter from Mark Leutem (undated)
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Dear Honorable Mayor Furlong, City of Chanhassen Council Members, Todd Gerhardt,
Kate Aanenson and Sharmeen AI-Jaff,
The purpose of this letter is to assure there is clarity and consistency in what I communicated at the City Council
meetings as we worked through the drive-thru variance at Lot 2, Block 1, Arboretum Shopping Center. I write this
to avoid a possible perception that I said that I could not have a certain type of tenant and later acquired that type
of tenant.
In my first presentation to the City Council, I had stated that we had researched potential tenants and the space
was not large enough for a McDonald's or like tenant. We had in fact contacted real estate broker's representing
Mc Donald's, Noodles and Company... etc; and our 1550 square foot space was not even considered for a walk
through as it was too small.
About mid to late December, my wife got a call from the corporate office of Burger King. They had heard of the
potential drive-thru from I believe one of our vendors and asked us for floor plans, the proposed drive-thru plans
and to visit the site. Their work up was extremely slow and I really did not give it much credence for the first few
months as we had a plan in place with the sandwich shop. About a month and half later, I got a call from a Taco
John's franchisee and he brought in the national company to see the site. Both national companies asked that we
not disclose the fact they were considering the site as they like to introduce the site to one franchisee at a time
and want those franchisees to feel they are the first as well as the fact the franchisees live locally and may hear
about the project.
As we moved through the variance process, the cost of the drive thru more than tripled and I needed help from
our bank as we did not have the funds to complete the project. This in turn contributed to the delay in my ability to
produce the requirements of the variance filing like the letter of credit, drawings and such. My bank displayed
concerns of a third sandwich shop in the neighborhood and felt our station might not see much new business as
the new sandwich shop would merely dilute the existing business to the shopping center. Certainly, that logic was
reasonable. They "leveraged" us to work up the other two parties of interest before they would give us what we
needed to get this project done. They wanted us to keep the sandwich shop as a possible back-up tenant, but
focus on the other two.
Long story short, we could not cover the additional cost of the drive-thru to fulfill the City's requirements with the
sandwich shop as a tenant, but we could if we obtained one of the other two. Since then two tenants have
dropped out for different reasons beyond our control; the one that remains is Burger King.
By coincidence; the extension of the length of the drive-thru required by the City Planners actually complies with
and in fact exceeds the stacking requirements for Burger King by 1- 2 cars. Certainly they will not drive the
volume of a Mc Donald's, especially being a smaller space and in a class B or C location. With a maximum 2
minute 30 second order prep time (from order to driving away from the window), they will keep the cars moving,
To date we have not gotten an agreement finalized by the Burger King corporate office, but we ar~ hopeful it will
be done the next couple weeks. The franchisee we are working with is a local group out of Minnetonka, very
professional and probably the fairest I easiest tenant I have ever worked with.
Thank you for the City backing us on this project. We know we were given special consideration and we are truly
grateful. We are hopeful that this will give us the bump in business that will allow it sustain itself and do so soon.
Sin"7lj
Mal{ t:utem
KLMS Group LLC