Everyone knows by now that rents across Los Angeles are shooting up wildly, but the story with the nonprofit Santa Monica Museum of Art at Bergamot Art Station is something else altogether: the museum's landlord has more than tripled the rent because he disagrees with their employees about a major redevelopment of the site. Per Santa Monica Next, the museum currently rents its space from a nearby gallery owner, who is not just the building's owner but was also, until a few weeks ago, part of one of the three teams vying to give Bergamot a major overhaul. SaMo's economic development department recommended a competing plan that happened to also receive a glowing endorsement from the SMMoA's director. Now the museum's rent has increased to $22,000 a month (it had been $7,000 rent) and the landlord is asking the museum for $53,000 in back-rent as well, "in response to what he considers its disruptive and unneighborly vision for Bergamot Station," the LA Times reported.
