Couple's dream now their worst nightmare

Even though no train is coming, the couple who own tiny Caffè Appassionato likely will be forced to move because of the Seattle Monorail Project.

Taiki Hong Lee and husband Young Lee fought condemnation by SMP, but they finally sold their tiny triangle near the Space Needle for $580,000 after the agency defeated them in state appeals court last year.

When voters canceled the monorail last fall, the Lees asked to buy back the land. The agency says it must be resold for full market value, through competitive bidding this month — a contest the Lees believe they would lose.

"This is my baby," says Taiki Lee.

The couple bought the century-old building for $220,000 in 1997, then spent $221,000 renovating it. For now, they continue to operate the cafe and an accounting business upstairs, paying $1,882 monthly rent to the SMP. They dream of adding condos.

Instead, a future buyer can evict them with two months' notice.

"Am I living in a democratic country or a communist country?" Young Lee asked. "If they don't use it, they have to return it."

Legally, that's not the case.

Under the state constitution, any special deal with former owners would be an illegal "gift of public funds," SMP attorneys say.

The Lees didn't apply for an SMP relocation grant last year, thinking the monorail's collapse would help them buy the property back.

"She has this bastion of hope that somehow in this country, it is impossible to permit what happened to her, and somehow the American system is going to somehow correct itself and be fine," said her attorney, Clay Terry.

SMP says it has relocated 42 businesses, 13 homes and three parking lots. The impact is less than Sound Transit's surface light-rail project, which has relocated 215 owners and tenants so far. SMP has also paid $6.8 million in relocation aid to owners and tenants.

SMP board member Jim Nobles said the more money that comes in from land sales, the sooner the agency can pay its debts and eliminate its tax on car tabs.

"The land belongs to the taxpayers of Seattle right now," he said.

Cleve Stockmeyer, a former monorail-board member, said former owners deserve a chance to repurchase at cost plus 3 percent.

"I think it's a case of inertia, and government heartlessness," he told Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes" program, which was doing a series on alleged eminent-domain abuses. "It shouldn't be the public purpose to just flip property and speculate."

But land-use attorney Larry Smith, who represented the Fiorito family when they fought SMP's purchase of the land now occupied by the Denny's in Ballard, advised his clients to "take the money and move on" rather than seek to buy back the property.

Taiki Lee finally gave up hope after reading an e-mail from an aide to state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle (a nonvoting SMP board member), relaying SMP's view that the Lees got a good price and were allowed to continue renting their business space at a below-market rate.

"Money is not important," Taiki Lee said. "My property, my dream, my American dream is gone. They still did not apologize for the mistake they made on me. It hurts me."

Kohl-Welles said she sympathizes, but "I can't recommend that the monorail board violate the state constitution."

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com