I am a lifelong Fullertonian and a Commissioner on the City’s Transportation and Circulation Commission. I’m passionate about infrastructure that fosters civic pride, connects our City, and keeps people safe. These are my personal views and do not represent the City of Fullerton or the Transportation and Circulation Commission.
On July 15, the Fullerton City Council will consider a lease extension for a tenant of the Santa Fe Depot at the Fullerton Transportation Center. Built in 1930, this Spanish Colonial-style landmark features an Amtrak ticketing office and leased space currently occupied by a downtrodden café.
Fullerton is home to one of Southern California’s busiest train stations, with passenger service from Metrolink’s Orange County and 91/Perris Valley Lines and Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner and Southwest Chief, which runs daily to Chicago.
The Fullerton Transportation Center should be among the City’s most valuable and visible assets. Instead, the City is offering unusually generous terms to its current tenant, Bushala Brothers, Inc. (which I’ll refer to here simply as “the Bushala Brothers”). The company’s principals are embroiled in a $400 million lawsuit alleging the looting of family assets, including accusations of elder financial abuse. The original lease dates back to the early 1990s, and this proposed extension could keep the Bushala Brothers in place until July 15, 2060. Here’s why that’s a bad deal for Fullerton:
Wasted Potential
Fullerton’s Transportation Center has untapped potential that the current tenants have failed to unlock. The Bushala Brothers know this; they have made repeated promises over the years, but those pledges have consistently gone unfulfilled. In 1989, Tony Bushala vowed to add an outdoor arcade, expand the indoor lobby, and install a statue of George H. Fullerton in a fountain. None of it materialized.
Other cities have turned their train stations into vibrant community hubs. San Juan Capistrano’s station, for example, is home to Trevor’s at the Tracks, a thriving restaurant that draws locals and visitors alike, boosting civic pride and City revenue.
An Unnecessary Middleman
Why does Fullerton need a middleman? The Bushala Brothers sublease the space to a relative, Salma Bushala, who operates the struggling Santa Fe Express Cafe. The latest proposed lease offers the possibility of a new restaurant in the unused loading dock area, which is not currently included in the lease. But listings on LoopNet from 2021 show the Bushala Brothers were already trying to pass that concept off to another operator.
Rather than relying on them to manage the process, the City could simply pursue a build-to-suit tenant directly. Right now, the Bushala Brothers pay the City a below-market rent, sublease the space, and pocket the difference. That is taxpayer money subsidizing a middleman at a time when Fullerton faces serious financial challenges.
https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/124-E-Santa-Fe-Ave-Fullerton-CA/24073711/
Legal Jeopardy
The tenants are entangled in legal disputes that should give the City pause before signing a 35-year lease. A lawsuit filed last October by Albert Bushala accuses his siblings, Tony, George Jr., and Salma Bushala-Hamud, of manipulating their father into transferring family real estate assets in violation of a decades-old oral partnership agreement. The case is ongoing, and all parties are presumed innocent. Still, the optics and risks of locking the City into a long-term agreement with individuals facing these serious accusations are undeniable.
Double Dipping
There has been no public audit to confirm the tenants are complying with their current lease. For a renewal of this magnitude, that is not just advisable; it is essential. The current lease makes the Bushala Brothers responsible for all maintenance and repairs. Yet in 2024, the City paid them over $100,000 for plaster and ADA upgrades to the café, a space clearly under their control. Did they contribute anything, as required? They could be in breach of their contract depending on the answer. Without a full audit, we cannot know.
Lack of Revenue
The proposed lease extension sets base rent for the existing space at around $22,000 a year, less than $2,000 a month, with no provision for the City to collect a percentage of sales. Compare this to Wings Café at the Fullerton Airport, which not only pays base rent but also shares a percentage of revenue with the City. Or the Summit House restaurant, which generates hundreds of thousands in revenue for the City each year. Why settle for less at one of Fullerton’s most high-profile locations?
(See attached lease documents for Wings Cafe and Summit House which show City receiving a portion of gross receipts below)
Questionable Terms
The proposed lease would tie the City’s hands on this valuable, transit-adjacent land until 2060. It allows automatic subleasing and transfers without council approval. It also fails to account for rising land values from nearby development, like the Tracks at Fullerton Station, which will bring 140 apartments and 124 hotel rooms to the area.
Even more concerning is how the terms were changed. After a previous version of the lease was pulled from the June agenda, the Deputy City Manager said the delay was to “clarify the language.” But the revised version does far more. It eliminates a rent reset, expands rent credits, extends the lease even further, and weakens enforcement for missed construction deadlines. These are not minor edits; they are material changes that favor the tenant. The public deserves to know who directed these changes and why.
As a Fullerton resident who cares deeply about transportation and civic life, I urge the City Council to reject this lease extension. Look to cities like San Juan Capistrano, which have leveraged their transit centers to create community and drive revenue. Or consider successes right here in Fullerton, like Wings Café and the Summit House, where the City negotiated strong, revenue-generating leases.
The current lease does not expire until 2027. The City has plenty of time to evaluate this extension carefully and seek public input on how best to use the space in the years ahead. Pushing this decision through now, with so much time left on the clock, raises an important question: why? Negotiating in closed session with a major political donor whose lease has already failed to deliver on its promises is neither transparent nor fair. The City Council owes it to residents to make a more thoughtful, informed decision about an agreement that will shape Fullerton well into the second half of this century.
Fullerton is a big City with big needs, enormous potential, and a bright future. It is time we started taking ourselves seriously.
The lease extension will be discussed Tuesday, July 15, 2025, at 303 W. Commonwealth Ave. The meeting begins at 5:30 PM.
1989-05-16 Agreement to Lease - The Summit Restaurant Company
2014-04-21 Lease Agmt for the Management & Operation of the Airport Restaurant - Galley Cafe DBA Wings Cafe
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Categories: Community Voices, Local Business, Local Events, Local Government, Local News
This might be one of the worst opinion pieces I’ve ever read in the Fullerton Observer, and that’s saying a lot.
The author is so motivated by partisan hate for the Bushala family that he can’t see glaring counterexamples and holes in his own logic. I audibly laughed outloud at the comparison to Wings Cafe, as if that place is the pinnacle of success. Wings closes at 2:00pm daily and doesn’t pay the City anything on the first $45,000 of monthly revenue. When I pulled the records several years ago, there were months Wings paid the City NOTHING on a percentage basis because their revenue was so minimal.
He’s also clueless about the nature of the retail and office space at the Fullerton Train Station. Contrary to the rosy picture he tries to paint, this is not prime real estate. Noise and vibration are big problems. I remember buying a soda at the Santa Fe Express Cafe back in the 1990’s as a freight train was passing by. The vibration caused a picture to fall off the wall and glass shaddered everywhere. On weekdays, parking is terrible around the train station, just as it is in other parts of downtown. The other leased spaces are hidden around the backside and upstairs and aren’t viable for any type of retail store or restaurant without costly modifications. Homeless people sleep and urinate at the base of the stairs needed to access these leased spaces. Drunks from the downtown bars also urinate (and vomit) in the parking lots. The most ludicrous insinuation of this op-ed is that there’s another lessor out there who could magically abate all of the existing downsides and still be willing to pay the City more than the Bushalas are willing to pay.
If the author is so concerned about cronyism and sweetheart deals, now is a great time to examine every other contract handed out by the City. Spend some time looking at the agreement the City of Fullerton gave to American Golf to run the Fullerton Golf Course. Then make a records request for the expenses submitted to the City for reimbursement. Fullerton taxpayers are literally paying for thousands of dollars of GIFT CARDS supposedly being given as bonuses to American Golf employees. That’s not just a bad deal for taxpayers, it’s illegal because the compensation is not being reported to the IRS. There are so many WORSE deals handed out by the City of Fullerton but the author is blind to them because of his Bushala obsession.
Not sure haute cuisine is the way to go in the Fullerton depot’s available restaurant area. Fullerton is a much busier station than San Juan Capistrano. I think commuters are more likely to want a quick bite or a grab and go food service option than a fancy dining experience. The cafe space isn’t even large enough for a proper restaurant. If diners want to sit down to a meal in an historic train station setting they can walk next door to the Spaghetti Factory.
ED Response: Are you forgetting that a hotel is planned adjacent to the depot?
Will a pie in the sky hotel that will probably never get built make the restaurant space at the depot any larger? Why not just build a nice restaurant on the ground floor of this aspirational hotel? Perhaps because there are already half a dozen other dining options either right next to the depot or across the parking lot from it? Which is why a quick serve cafe is probably the best use of the depot space.