Tenant:

A group of tenants at a Costa Mesa shopping center has rallied against the center’s management team, which they said has failed to promote their businesses adequately and attempted to evict an outspoken shop owner.

Don Logan, co-owner of Waterfront Furnishings in the South Coast Home Furnishings Centre, said the landlords targeted him in retaliation for criticizing them and for leading his own public relations campaign for himself and other merchants.

The owners’ case against him is scheduled for a hearing at 1:30 p.m. Monday at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach, and Logan has subpoenaed a number of other business owners to testify on his behalf.

The attempted eviction, according to Logan, is the latest in a series of belligerent moves by the center’s managers, who took over in August when the original owner sold the property.

“They’re managing in the manner of thugs,” he said. “That is the general consensus of everybody. This center is probably going to self-destruct very quickly.”

Leslie Bower, an attorney for the South Coast Home Furnishings Centre, declined comment due to the pending litigation.

Efforts to reach an attorney for the PacificWest Asset Management Corp., which manages the center, were unsuccessful.

The owners served Waterfront Furnishings with an eviction notice in November because Logan and his mother, Katherine Logan-Brown, were late on their rent payments.

According to a statement Logan filed with Orange County Superior Court, he put his rent payment in the mail Nov. 16, which was the deadline, but the landlords cited him for lateness because the envelope was not postmarked until the following Monday.

In addition, Logan said, the owners violated the terms of his lease by not letting him deliver the checks in person, which would have allowed him to pay before the deadline.

The center on Hyland Avenue opened its first store in November 2006 and added more outlets in the coming months before its creator, Birtcher Development and Investments, sold it in August to South Coast Home Furnishings Center LLC. Tenants said both owners had promised a grand opening and an aggressive promotional campaign and failed to come through on either, prompting Logan to create a merchants association to advertise for the center.

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at [email protected].