The City of Commerce allowed a tenant with ties to a businessman favored by City Hall to openly use a city-owned warehouse to sell bulk liquor, food products and energy drinks for nearly a year in violation of its own Municipal Code, a Southern California News Group investigation has revealed.
Commerce was notified, but did not object, in March 2023 when Amitim Group LLC obtained state licenses to distribute and sell liquor, beer and wine wholesale to other license holders, even though Amitim did not — and still doesn’t — have the city’s approval to legally operate.
Amitim, which runs L.A. Wholesalers out of a Slauson Avenue warehouse owned by Commerce’s former redevelopment agency, has neither a business license nor a conditional use permit, both of which are required by the Municipal Code to sell alcohol anywhere in the city.
California prohibits the issuance of a state retail liquor license to a business without local approval, but it does not have the same requirement for wholesale and distribution. Instead, notices are sent to local law enforcement, the city’s planning director and the City Council asking if they object.
In Commerce’s case, there was no response, according to the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
Amitim applied for a Commerce business license and a conditional use permit for the cash-and-carry store last year, but did not complete either process, according to city officials. The business failed to receive approval from the county Fire Department, which flagged multiple violations at the store just days before it opened to the public without the city’s permission.
Rent below market rates
On top of ignoring the blatant violations, Commerce charged the company far below the market rate for a 25,000-square-foot-warehouse, potentially missing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue.
Amitim pays just $6.24 per square foot per year. A similarly sized warehouse on Slauson Avenue, less than two miles…
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