The Greeks in downtown Wilmington moving after eviction attempt

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A long time restaurant in downtown Wilmington is moving after an altercation we told you about earlier this month.

The owners of the Greeks showed up to work one morning to find the locks had been changed and their security cameras had been disabled.

After five years, General Manager Yanni Papanikolaou said they are packing up and moving out.

“We’re just taking everything that’s ours and looking to relocate,” Papanikolaou said.

Papanikolaou said it all started when they tried to get some issues with the building fixed.

“The roof, the water heater,” Papanikolaou said. “The water heater is not operational right now.”

On February 1, he said the landlord tried to evict him without filing a notice and had another business moving into his restaurant that morning.

“Unfortunately, he just doesn’t want to fix the building,” Papanikolaou said.

At the time, the property’s realtor Tom Heitman told us the greeks were more than $10,000 behind on rent and that is why they tried to evict them.

“I said, ‘Let’s talk’. He said that too. ‘Let’s work it out.’ But when I told him, ‘Here is the rent money. Here is the money you claim we owe you. What is there to work out?’ He was like, ” Oh. Let me talk to my client,'” Papanikolaou said.

Papanikolaou said they have decided it was time to just move on.

“If we wants to rent it to somebody else, like he sublet it, be my guest, but at this point, you know he is going to have to bring the health department here,” Papanikolaou said. “He is going to have to bring the building up to code.”

In the meantime, Papanikolaou said the greeks plan to be re-open in the next two months. He does not want to say where they are moving yet until a lease is signed.

We reached out to Tom Heitman for a comment. We are still waiting to hear back.