Chronology

2004 Smith College said that they would have to relocate Green Street Café

2004 –Smith College stopped doing business with Green Street Café that included catering and hosting private parties and other dinners. Loss of business estimated at $80,000 annually.

2006 – Smith offers Green Street Café $65,000 to relocate. True costs are more than $300,000.

Spring 2007 – Smith begins work on the $100 million Ford Hall, the new science and engineering building.

March 2007 – Green Street Café closes March 1st following suspension of their liquor license for fire code violations. The code violations were the responsibility of Smith College who owned the building, and the restaurant suffered irrevocable damage from the closing.

July 2007 – Green Street and Smith go to mediation. Smith offers $50,000 as "take it or leave it", or we’ll see you in court for the next three years. Sielski and Dozmati were given 24 hours to decide. They told Smith it would take $300,000 to reopen the business, but took the settlement of which $15,000 went to legal fees and then the attorney dropped them. Mayor of Northampton met with Sielski and Dozmati and said they could take out $300,000 in federal SBA loans and not to worry about paying them back.

July 2007 – Green street and Smith reach an agreement and Smith issues a press release that quotes John and Jim saying the settlement was "favorable, generous and conducive to a successful restaurant business." They claim that they were forced to agree to the press release under duress and with the promise from Smith that they would fix the problems at the building which they have not done. Terms of the lease are til 2012.

October 2007 - They were able to reopen in Oct. 2007 by offering their customers pre-paid dining memberships totaling $12,000 as they traded food for electrical work and plumbing work and reopened with lots of debt.

2009 Outlook – The financial future of the Green Street Café is grim as Smith continues to try and force John and Jim to sign agreements to takeover their parking lot so that Smith can finish work on the entrance to the new Ford Hall. John and Jim have not signed anything. The lot has 16 spaces and an outdoor garden area for dining.