Goldmex

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Lease Agreement Plaintiff began operating its restaurant in the Glendale Galleria in 1989, pursuant to a franchise agreement with La Salsa Franchise, Inc. (La Salsa). The agreement required plaintiff to pay La Salsa a fixed percentage of its gross sales at regular intervals, specifically, a five percent “royalty fee” for use of La Salsa’s operational system and proprietary marks plus a one percent “advertising fee” (hereafter, the “franchise fees”). Defendant’s affiliate, General Growth Properties (General Growth), owned and managed the Glendale Galleria as well as another local mall, the Northridge Fashion Center (Northridge), in which plaintiff’s affiliate, Goldmex LLC, also operated a La Salsa Fresh Mexican Grill pursuant to a franchise agreement. In the summer of 2004, David Grossman (Grossman), General Growth’s leasing agent and a representative of defendant, began negotiations with plaintiff’s president, Andy Goldman (Goldman), to renew plaintiff’s lease in the Glendale Galleria. That fall,

1 In 2012, Glendale I Mall Associates, LLC was converted to a limited partnership, Glendale I Mall Associates, LP, which the trial court added as a defendant in…