Palm Springs business evictions put art in jeopardy

Time is running out for some Palm Springs business owners that are being forced to move.

On March 27th, Benjamin Sullivan and nearly a dozen other business owners on the northeast corner of Indian Canyon Drive and Ramon Road received eviction notices from their landlords.

“It’s a horrible thing to do to people that are your neighbors,” said Sullivan, owner of KBC of Palm Springs.

Sullivan plans to move his business to Rancho Mirage even though he has invested nearly $400,000 into his current location. He said that he plans to sell everything and start over.

Gallery 446 is a few stores down, but they are not as ready. They still have no place to go.

“I hope something transpires because I run an anti-bullying organization and a lot of kids from the high desert and from the low desert depend on what we do,” said Dimitri Halkidis, who owns Gallery 446.

Halkidis said the most difficult part is the fate of Kenny Irwin’s art installation that calls his gallery home.

“It took 1,200 hours over the span of four months to create this art installation,” explained Irwin. “I worked on it 10 to 12 hours a day, so I put a lot of blood, sweat and resources into producing this.”

Irwin built the installation custom for the gallery, and the news of the eviction came just days after he finished the project.Now, he risks losing it all. According to Irwin, the art can be moved.

“It takes someone to help sponsor the move and someone that is willing to contribute the space where I can set this up and install this in the new space,” he said. “Right now I really have no resources to work with so I am hopeful someone out there will want to come and experience this.”

The owners received their eviction notices on March 27. They have to be out by May 31 or risk a $1,000 a day fine.The landowners have yet to say what will happen to the property once the business owners move out.