Businesses may be booming along St. Petersburg's Central Avenue but one building has tenants packing up.

Business owners along Central Avenue say landlord pushing them out

Landlord Abraham Reid says tenants violated their leases

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And those tenants are blaming it all on the landlord.

Mark Freels, the owner of Reclaimed Restorations and Upholstry, said he had no issues for about two years while being based at 2315 Central Ave.

Then he began complaining about a leaky roof he said the landlord Abraham Reid wouldn't fix.

"It was fine in the beginning," Freels said. "And then it just went down hill."

Freels said his constant requests to properly repair the roof turned Reid against him.

"The ceiling leaked constantly and he would patch it," Freels said. "Just patch after patch after patch, you know, but it still kept leaking."

Freels said after that, he received an eviction notice.

Susan Bridges, who owns the Sawgrass Tiki Bar and Teahouse next door, had a similar experience.

"If you stand up to him at all, he wants you out of here," Bridges said.

Reid, however, said his tenants broke their leases.

"(It's) not my problem," Reid said when asked about the tenants being evicted. "(They) violated the lease, you break the rules, you got to go."

When pressed about how the tenants violated their leases, Reid didn't give a clear answer, saying: "The lease expired and right now, they don't have a lease. They voided the lease, OK."

But Freels and Bridges said not only were they evicted, they were also harassed.

"After the incident with me telling him to get out of our shop after hours, he had proceeded a couple days after that, to slash my tires," Freels said.

Freels filed a police report and offered surveillance video but police said it wasn't enough to prove anything against Reid.

St. Petersburg's small business liasion Jessica Eileerman knows about the riff between Reid and his tenants but said there is little she can do other than help them relocate.

"What we can do is help those tenants to say, OK, we're still actively growing businesses," Eileerman said. "We want to keep you in St. Pete. 'What can we do to help in this transition period?'"

Meanwhile, city code enforcement is investigating if there are any issues with the building being up to code.

Freels has relocated his upholstery shop.

Bridges, however, has decided to stay and fight eviction.

"If I leave this, I have nothing," Bridges said. "This was all I had. He wants to rip that from under me."