06/01/2024
The location known as Epicurean Garage Spirit in partnership with The Autism Village Foundation 501c3 non-profit has closed permanently due to the sudden cancellation of the lease purchase agreement by the sellers Vincent, aka Vinny, and Isabella Cracchiolo.
For a full statement from the foundation, please read below.
If you would like to help the foundation during this time there are a few ways:
Donate here: https://about.autismvillage.com/donate/
Join the Kindness Club here: https://about.autismvillage.com/kindness-cafe-membership/
Join the Epicurean Club at The Historic Flowing Springs Inn here: www.flowingspringsinn.com
Statement from Autism Village
In April of 2023, The Autism Village Foundation 501c3 non-profit entered into a lease-purchase agreement for the property at the corner of 401 and 113 or 861 Kimberton Road at the Anselma crossroads. Formerly Stickman’s and prior Vinny’s of Chester Springs food and beverage operations ran out of this location. The agreement was with Vincent, aka Vinny, and Isabella Cracchiolo. Vinny formerly operated Vinny’s of Chester Springs and now works at Jeff D’Ambrosio Dodge in Downingtown. The Cracchiolos now reside in the Morgantown area. The non-profit paid a $250,000 down payment and agreed to pay a monthly lease payment of approximately $5,000 per month until the lease-purchase agreement was completed at which time deeded ownership of the property would transfer from the Cracchiolos to The Autism Village Foundation.
While the lease payments are now current, the non-profit has struggled to make the payments on the 1st of each month as per the agreement due to low income while awaiting opening and no reserves due to the down payment. The protracted time to put the facility into operational condition, many conditions and challenges with the property unknown at the start of the project, and the protracted and complex permitting conditions for operations at the site from the Health Department (CCHD), Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and Chester Country Sewer Authority culminated in a very difficult cash position for the non-profit.
The goal at the time of purchase was to be in operation by the fall of 2023 and instead, operations could not begin until May of 2024. The costs for the required work as well as the overhead for the lease and other property costs required unplanned and significant fundraising which does not align well with timely payments of monthly expenses.
Nine days before the end of May 2024, Vinny’s lawyers notified Autism Village Foundation that he was canceling the lease and that the non-profit would forfeit the $250,000 deposit made at the time of purchase.
It is the late payment timing that Vinny is citing as the reason for the cancellation of the lease, removal of access to the property as of June 1st, and the forfeiture to himself of the non-profit’s $250,000 deposit. Vinny’s lawyer, Julie Lathia, of BenLath Law Group of Westchester PA, gave the non-profit 9 days of notice to vacate the premises.
Along the way and during the 9 days, we have negotiated in good faith to cure the late payments and based on proceeds from forthcoming sales of other real-estate to offer to pay Vinny ahead for the balance of the year by July 15th. Vinny did not accept any offers and we understand that based on the legal terms of the agreement he believes that he is due the $250,000 deposit in return for non-performance of timely payments. At the beginning of this process, Vinny made it very clear that he doesn’t plan to use the property again for himself at any time in the future and so we expect the property will go up for sale again.
While the agreement notes that the purchase of the property was in “as-is” condition, the facility was represented and known as a prior licensed food service facility having recently been operated by Stickman’s and prior by Vinny, himself. The non-profit’s goal was to open a quick service location in cooperation with The Epicurean Garage and as part of a partnership to create vocational paths in hospitality for local young adults and adults who are neurodivergent, for example those living with autism. At the outset, Vinny expressed a positive view of the mission even offering to help design a mobile pizza truck with the non-profit for use in the mission. For the short time that the Spirit location was open to the public, we did succeed in employing local neurodivergent staff and were looking forward to the ongoing expansion of that mission and work.
During the last year, the Foundation, having used the majority of its capital reserves for the downpayment, has worked diligently to get the location into commercial operations and to fundraise to cover the costs of doing so. As noted above, the property turned out to be far from ready for a Health Department inspection and daily operations.
The Foundation volunteers and Epicurean Garage staff, assisted by some professional contractors, tackled broken and leaking plumbing, failed HVAC, unreliable walk-in refrigeration and freezer, and more. There was absolutely nothing except the hood system with a roof flashing leak to work with to start.
Last spring in the huge local rain deluge, the pipe that routes the stream under the parking lot failed and was determined by local authorities to be the land owner’s responsibility to repair. In fact, engineers determined that the piping system was not sufficiently sized based on current codes and should be enlarged for the entire run across the property. During a PennDot inspection with a robot camera of the pipe, the initial portion of the pipe run was determined to have been modified and downsized at some point by a prior owner. The authorities accepted that if it were returned to its original size, this might be acceptable vs replacing the entire run with a larger spiral drainage pipe. Either way, this will be a very costly project of excavation and repairs across the entire width of the macadam parking lot.
Getting a new Health Department certification to operate turned out to be a very protracted process as many regulations had changed. Improvements to the gas manifold, drains, electrical, and many other elements were required. As there was nothing left of the prior commercial kitchen but the leaky hood system, a completely new kitchen, even including the three-bowl and wash sinks, was required. With diligent work and fundraising, the Foundation finally completed the work to prepare the building for a Health Department Inspection.
At the time the final Health Department inspection was requested, we were notified that the on-site water source in the building was considered a Public Water Source and must be actively managed under the DEP in the Safe Water Drinking Act Program. We did not expect this and were not familiar with the process. Following an arduous chase, we finally found the correct contact at the DEP.
The DEP representative revealed that the system had previously been active in the DEP program, that Vinny was the listed Water Manager, and that the system was active as recently as during Stickmans use with Vinny acting in the capacity of Water Manager, however, it was presently no longer in an active state. They further notified us that since it had gone inactive and changes had been made to requirement, we’d have to start from scratch as it would be considered a new system application which would also require bringing it into current requirement compliance requiring upgrades of expensive components and a new application and fee.
Following a series of meetings with the DEP, they decided, given the non-profit’s journey and mission, to compromise and allow the system to be transferred to us as the official Water Manager and be reactivated as-is as long as it was in the exact same configuration as it had been previously recorded in their database. As various upgrades had been made, for example, a new UV light, we then had to backtrack, remove all of the new, put back all of the old, make the 1998 vintage equipment work properly again, and track Vinny down for a notarized transfer of the management of the system to ourselves. There is apparently no requirement for Vinny to have disclosed that the water was managed in the DEP program, however, given he was the Public Water Source Manager during his own tenure in the facility as well as recently during Stickmans, one might think he’d have mentioned it.
Following the DEP’s recertification of the water source, the Health Department completed a final inspection and certified that the facility could open to the public. This is when the latest misery befell the project. The Health Department inspector notified us that under Stickmans tenure, the Chester County Sewer Authority had assessed the system and that there were extreme limitations on operations including a limit of 44 seats combined inside and outside based on the septic system capacity. The health department informed us that we needed to contact the Sewer Authority for more details.
Upon contacting the sewer authority, we received a copy of the letter delivered to Stickmans on 10/23/2018 which was way worse than a 44-seat limitation. The Sewer Authority had notified Stickmans, The Health Department, and the Township that they were only allowed to serve a MAXIMUM of 44 total in-house guests per day, 75 take-out meals, and were limited to 3 staff in the building. As our operations included a line cook, a baker, a barista, a cashier, and often a second front-of-house staff, we were already out of compliance on staff. Further with a coffee shop/quick service casual check dollar average for sales, the limitation to 44 people served per day would not support a feasible revenue and business model or the ability to open for more than any one shift: breakfast, lunch, or dinner. There was no possible way to continue with any outdoor seating and use of the outdoor space at the facility at all as these seats were also counted in the 44 allowed seats.
The Sewer Authority letter went on to say that “there are no other suitable on-lot locations/replacement areas available for future sewage facilities for your property”. The letter then sites an agreement made to maintain the system which we never did get to see as follows: “Chester County Health Department strongly recommends you maintain your sewage disposal system as required by the Operation and Maintenance Order signed by both you and West Pikeland Township…” We were never notified of this agreement or what we’d have to do to comply with it. When we had the system pumped and inspected the evidence was that no maintenance had been done in some time.
We began discussions with the sewer authority to possibly lease a self-contained bathroom trailer with a pump-out and hauling service contract and they and the Health Department seemed favorably inclined but referred us to go back to the DEP for formal assessment and approval of such a plan. We had not gotten to the DEP request when the eviction notice came so we don’t know what would have come of this request.
Vinny’s lawyers assert that there’s no requirement for the property owner and seller to disclose any of this information under PA law and that given the property was sold “as-is” this is of no importance in the context of the agreement or relations with Vinny. They may be correct, we are not lawyers. They are correct that we were unable to make the lease payments on the 1st of each month as described in the agreement. So here we are, based on the letter of the agreement, we have closed, moved out all of our furniture and fixtures, and returned the property to Vinny on June 1st as demanded by his lawyers.
Despite all of these headwinds and challenges, the Autism Village volunteers and fundraisers and the team from the Epicurean Garage worked diligently to try to see this project through.
While we dealt with surprise after surprise, the folks from the Township, Chester County Health Department, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Sewer Authority were all patient and helpful. All whom we engaged with from these official government and oversight organizations were positively moved by the mission and the project and reacted by being as helpful as possible within the limits of the required governance and oversight.
The local community responded so positively and lovingly when we finally did open for the short time that it filled our souls with joy. The project has brought stress and misery to everyone who worked so hard to make it come to life. And yet, they all persevered. Everyone’s support along the way and during our short run gave us hope for good in the world.
We are sad that the sellers, Vincent and Isabella Cracchiolo, could not also find it in their hearts to persevere through the challenging process where we did not always have funds for the monthly payments on the schedule as outlined in the lease-purchase agreement. As per the letter of the agreement, because of our funding and paying challenges, and even though we were able to catch up and offer soon to pay ahead on the monthly lease payments for the balance of this year, they instead decided to take the action to cancel the agreement, keep the $250,000 deposit from The Autism Village Foundation, and put an end to this worthy work. A project which we believe would also have resulted in a lovely socially responsible gem for West Pikeland Township residents and travelers across the Anselma crossroads at Pennsylvania Routes 401 and 113. Again, we did not perform as per the agreement and so the sellers are likely within their rights to take these actions and position. Also again, we are not lawyers.
In closing, we’d like to again thank everyone who supported us, cheered us on, and especially the officials at the Township, Health Department, DEP, and Sewer Authority who did everything that they could to find a way forward with a challenging parcel of land.
With sincere gratitude,
The folks of The Autism Village Foundation,
and on behalf of our very good friends at the Epicurean Garage.
