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By Mike Allen
November 5, 2022 (Santee) -- The Tin Fish at Santee Lakes, open for about a year, is closing this weekend, but why is a mystery. Padre Dam Water District, the agency that controls Santee Lakes, indicated only that a new vender is being selected.
Melissa McChesney, spokeswoman for Padre Dam, said that the owner of the business, Ed Kim, notified the agency in September “he intended to cease operations at Santee Lakes.”
She said the agency and owner determined the best course of action for both parties was to assign the licensing agreement to another vender, which Padre Dam’s CEO would oversee and select. But she provided no reason why Kim was exiting his contract early. In May of 2021, he signed a three-year lease with Padre Dam and opened the restaurant in June.
The lease called for Kim (photo, right) to pay a base rent of $3,000 monthly to Padre Dam. The deal would adjust in year two by the annual increase in the Consumer Price Index.
A stop at the fish restaurant on Friday found only a few patrons at the scenic $9 million deck that overlooks Lake 4 the agency completed last year. A counter worker said the last day for business was Nov. 6, and wasn’t sure why the place was closing.
Asked what would take the place of the fish eatery, the worker said it could be a pizzeria, but the worker wasn’t sure.
Calls and an email to Kim weren’t returned. Kim also owns a Tin Fish at the Imperial Beach Pier.
Laura Koval, director of parks for Santee Lakes, declined to provide any reason for the Tin Fish’s breaking its contract. “The assignment (of the lease) process is in the works with the current owner, so it would be premature for me to comment until an agreement is in place.”
The Tin Fish has restaurants in five other locations besides Santee: Imperial Beach, Oceanside, the Gaslamp Quarter, San Francisco and Indiana, according to its website. The Santee outlet is not listed on the website.
An email sent to Joseph Melluso, who founded the company in 1998 in San Diego and has offered franchises, wasn’t returned.
In other news about Santee Lakes, Padre Dam’s board of directors approved a new slate of fees for a variety of things including vehicle entrance, facility and equipment rentals at its Oct. 19 meeting.
Koval said the fee structure language was amended by inserting the words “up to” for many things that allows the park managers to have flexibility and adjust prices “along with changing market trends,” without having to return regularly to the board for approving such changes.
For example, while the fee ranges for car entrance is stated as $7 to $10 per car for a weekday, the actual charge this year of $4 will remain the same in 2023. For weekends and holidays, the charge per car will rise from $6 to $7 next year.
There are no charges for people visiting the park on foot, and many local residents can park nearby without paying fees.
For the Santee Lakes campground, the rate for one vehicle on a standard back-in space this year is $60 per day on weekdays, and $66 on weekends. That will rise in 2023 to $65 during the week and $71 per day on weekends. But those rates are off- peak.
During the peak demand period from April to early September for the same back-in space on weekdays next year will be $71, and on weekends, $78.
Before it adopted the new fee ranges, Koval said her staff researched local parks and RV campgrounds to ensure the rates at Santee Lakes were in line with the competition, and determined the park’s rates were less than most similar local parks.
“As the winner of the ARVC Best Large Campground in the Nation three times in the last 10 years (including 2021), we certainly believe we could charge as much or more than our local competitors, but have made every effort to maintain affordability,” she wrote in an email.
For a full view of all the rates at Santee Lakes, go to the website,
https://www.santeelakes.com/campground-pricing/
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