It’s been a long road, but business owner Robert Johnson has received a lease from the city to operate his restaurant at the Center Street Landing.

Sunday, June 03, 2001

It’s been a long road, but business owner Robert Johnson has received a lease from the city to operate his restaurant at the Center Street Landing.

Mayor Bob Cleary signed the agreement Wednesday assigning the lease on the property formerly held by Phil’s Landing Inc. to Johnson.

The consent from the city stems from the transfer of the lease from former restaurant owners and property leasers Cecil and Velda Cline who owned Phil’s Landing, Inc. (P.L.I.).

The history of the case began in 1999. According to a judgment entry signed by Common Pleas Court Judge Frank J. McCown, the Clines operated the facility until their business "deteriorated" in 1999. After their business began to decline, the Cline’s attempted to find potential buyers of their lease – Johnson being one of the potential buyers.

After this, Johnson was granted a partial assignment of the lease from the Clines, which the city agreed to on Aug. 26, 1999.

After this agreements was made, a lawsuit was filed by Ironton on Feb. 1, 2000, attempting to evict P.L.I. and Johnson from the property. This case was heard in Ironton Municipal Court and was dismissed on March 23, 2000.

On May 19, 2000, Johnson filed a lawsuit in Common Pleas Court, suing the city to get the lease on the property assigned to himself and not P.L.I.

In McCown’s opinion, he stated in section one of a four-point decision, "P.L.I. has validly assigned its leasehold interest to Johnson." In section three, McCown wrote, "The Defendant, P.L.I., is to forthwith advise the City to approve the assignment of lease to Robert Johnson. If the same is not done within 10 days of this entry, the City is directed by a copy of this Order to consider that the present lessee (P.L.I.) has requested the City to consent to the lease assignment to Johnson and to proceed to consider whether the approval of the lease assignment should be granted."