A major property owner downtown currently squabbling with the city is profiled.
Moe Foes
Why the city hates humanitarian and downtown developer Moe Mohanna
By Cosmo Garvin
“My name is Moe Mohanna, and I am one of 'those people.’”
That's Moe Mohanna's tag line. He means that he identifies with the poor and disenfranchised on the K Street blocks where he owns more than a dozen buildings.
"I come from a very old culture, the Persian culture. We believe that the only way you have a society that is sustainable is that you take everyone with you. We move forward and leave no one behind."
Depending on what you bring to the table, whatever preconceptions you have about Mohanna, K Street and the whole endeavor of redevelopment downtown, you might read that and think, "right on" ... or maybe you just gag a little bit.
"I only know about his humanitarian side, that's where I've seen him shine," said Sister Libby Fernandez, executive director of Loaves & Fishes, an independent charity for Sacramento's homeless.
For years, Mohanna has leased space to the charity for certain programs, and "he gave us a really good deal," Fernandez adds. He buys water for the homeless and helps distribute it along the American River during the hot parts of the summer. He helped found Sacramento's Clean and Sober program, and his daughters volunteer at the Mary House shelter. "He's been a real supporter of poor people," Fernandez said.
But others aren't so impressed with Mohanna or what he's done in the neighborhood.
People like Richard Lewis, who along with downtown developer David Taylor is building a cabaret and restaurant in the old Woolworth's building at 10th and K streets. "There has to be a legitimate reason to go to K Street," Lewis explained. "There are a lot of reasons not to go to K Street, they're walking up and down the street asking you for money."
"Those are my people," counters Mohanna.
Depending on who you ask, Mohanna's a scoundrel, a saint, a hustler who's always got an angle, the champion for the small businesses the city wants to replace with chain stores.
"Mohanna is pretty shady," said former K Street merchant Kenny Russell, with a laugh. He is the owner of Big Brother Comics, and one of Mohanna's former tenants. While Russell was just cutting his teeth in business, he and Mohanna haggled over rents, utilities and maintenance constantly. "But I really like him, because he gives people like me a chance."
The way Russell sees it, the city has done some pretty shady things, too. Like kicking him out of Mohanna's building on K Street and asserting the city was the new owner of the property when it wasn't.
