Marina Pizza Owner Moves Business After 15 Years In Suisun City

After 15 years at the same Suisun City location, Marina Pizza has moved to a new location on West Texas Street in Fairfield.

The restaurant’s owner, Sal Saleh, relocated from its Marina Shopping Center location after, he said, business dropped considerably. Marina Center owners say they never heard from Saleh before he moved.

“I left because they started construction work and they took the sign down that said Marina Pizza and Marina Shopping Center," said Selah.

Saleh said he depended a lot on the signs that stood off the side of Highway 12 to let potential customers know he was there. He also had issues with people standing near the front of the restaurant, an issue that he said began after there were meetings being held in the center. He said before and after meetings were held, people would smoke and drink near the doors of his restaurant.

 “I had a customer that would come twice a week and he’s a big guy,” said Saleh. “He told me I’m not scared to fight with these guys but I don’t want to put myself in that position.”

Saleh said he told the owners about the issues he was having, and they offered to place security guards in the area and would move him to a different location at the center, but it never happened. Saleh was near his breaking point when things had gotten so bad that he said he could not make ends meet.

“Business was getting slow.” said Saleh, “I told them look, I’m not going to be able to pay my rent.”

Saleh said he even made arrangements with the owners of the center that he would not have to pay rent for a couple of months. Still, he was having trouble from a drop in business. Saleh began to look around at other locations until he found his current location and moved out.

Claude Pellarin is co-owner of Pellarin Enterprises, which owns Marina Shopping Center. Pellarin stated he was not aware of the problems Selah was having with either his signs or people loitering near Marina Pizza.

“This is the first I’ve heard that (Selah) was disgruntled about anything,” said Pellarin.

Pellarin said he or his property management company would have been the point of contact if Selah was experiencing problems, but that he had not heard of any while he was a tenant there. Additionally, he said Selah moved out of his previous space unexpectedly.

“We never made any arrangements with any tenant regarding the construction,” said Pellarin.