The City’s notorious bad actor doubles down as the lawsuit, fines, a lien, and a preliminary injunction stack up

The Suprema Meats warehousing and distribution company operates at three properties on 57th St. at Lowell St. (955, 952, and 949 57th St.). Since 2013, Suprema has evaded compliance with 30+ municipal building, zoning, and public nuisance codes. It has delayed paying fines by appealing every code violation notice and public nuisance declaration, then suing the City when it lost.

That time ran out in February of 2025 when the City Attorney sued Suprema for public nuisance and the Court granted a preliminary injunction to stop the escalating noise and street blockages that have made life at home a living hell for many neighbors

So what does Suprema do?
Suprema continues its daily defiance of the City’s violation notice issued in May ordering it to immediately cease all big rig and delivery truck loading and forklift activity starting as early as 3:30 am and lasting all day in the parking lot at 949 57th St. impacting at least a dozen homes.

In June, the City Attorney filed a second motion to find Suprema in contempt of Court for 557 noise, obstruction, and traffic violations of the preliminary injunction in less than 2 months, most of which were painstakingly photo/video documented by the most severely impacted neighbors. Then, in July, Suprema bought the East Bay Fixture warehouse at 941 Aileen St. and Lowell St., more than doubling their footprint from about 30,000 to 64,000 square feet stretching along nearly three blocks of Lowell St. between Arlington Ave. and 56th St.

Suprema could try, once again, to evade code enforcement for years, but these latest escalations in public nuisances may end up strengthening the City’s current preliminary injunction and public nuisance lawsuit.

The City response:
The City Attorney plans to file a motion for summary judgement in September, based on the overwhelming evidence of Suprema’s noncompliance. This type of motion asserts that the case is already proven without the need for a trial and therefore can be resolved with the Court’s ruling sooner than the trial date currently set for February 2027.

Please contact us or more information or what you can do to support your neighbors and the City’s motion for summary judgement at agennino@gmail.com.

See below for detailed summaries and regular updates on this complex 13-year battle to end Suprema’s illegal operations. 

941 Aileen St. Warehouse (on Lowell from Aileen to 56th Streets)

• July 2026: Suprema purchased East Bay Fixture’s 34,000 square foot facility, more than doubling their warehouse space and footprint in the neighborhood, with the potential to monopolize more blocks of Lowell St. with increased nuisance impacts to surrounding single family homes, live work lofts, and office/artist space. 
• August 2026: Multiple neighbors complained of unpermitted construction in the roadway generating huge plumes of dust wafting over homes and grinding noise from inside the warehouse. Code Enforcement has yet to investigate. 

Note: Warehousing and distribution require Conditional Use Permit (CUP), which requires public input. A CUP and Zoning clearance is very unlikely to be granted given Suprema’s truck-intensive business and the lack of internal loading bays in this new warehouse. Suprema’s plans for this property are anyone’s guess but based on the illegal use of their other two warehouses, neighbors are bracing for expanded operations without the required Zoning clearance.

949 57th St. Parking Lot (on Lowell from 57th to Aileen Streets)

• April 2026: Suprema illegally converted its parking lot into a drive-through for unloading a steady stream of big rigs, bombarding a dozen homes just a few feet away with banging, slamming, shouting, beeping, idling, and vibration starting as early as 3:30 am. Additional nuisances generated by the conversion include big rigs maneuvering into or out of the lot from Lowell and driving over curbs, and forklifts unloading big rigs into Suprema’s diesel trucks that carry the product to their other open-air loading facility at 955 57th St.  
• Another block taken: With the parking lot occupied by big rigs all day, Suprema has taken over most of the public parking spots on Lowell from Arlington Ave. to 56th St. to store its fleet of trucks, forcing local drivers and bicyclists to maneuver around parked and double-parked trucks and into oncoming traffic.
• May 2026: The City issued a violation notice ordering Suprema to immediately cease loading/unloading trucks and storing pallets in the parking lot and cease operating trucks between 9 pm and 7 am or face $500 in fines daily.  Suprema’s appeal was denied for failure to pay the filing fee. For fines to start accruing, the City will need to issue a Declaration of Public Nuisance.

Public Nuisance Lawsuit 

• February 2025: The City Attorney filed a public nuisance lawsuit against Suprema seeking a court order to end the extreme noise starting at 3:30 a.m. and road and walkway obstruction generated by operations at all three of its properties.
• April 2026: The City Attorney filed a motion to amend the lawsuit to add the $785,916 in fines and accrued interest related to Building Services’ Declaration of Public Nuisance for unpermitted industrial construction at 955 57th St. to the lawsuit. The Court granted the motion on the same day.

Preliminary Injunction Granted, Suprema Violates It

• June 2025: The Court granted a preliminary injunction to provide residents with interim relief before the case is settled or goes to trial in November 2026.
• January 2026: The City Attorney filed the first motion to find Suprema in contempt of the court order for their ongoing violations of the preliminary injunction and to award fines totaling $106,000 ($1,000 per violation), representing a small fraction of the most egregious violations documented by residents and City inspectors. Defiance of court orders or being found in contempt of the preliminary injunction carries serious legal consequences, unlike the past administrative violation notices and orders to abate nuisances, which had no teeth. The motion also seeks regular hearings to allow the City to efficiently escalate penalties. 
• March 2026: The Court handed Suprema a big win by delaying a contempt ruling on the Preliminary Injunction to limit noise generation and right-of-way obstruction. The delay also includes suspending fines while an independent, court-appointed special monitor observes and gathers evidence for the judge to determine what constitutes violations of the preliminary injunction. This decision also delays any respite for neighbors from 13 years of abuse by Suprema.
• May 2026: The Court granted the motion, finding Suprema in contempt of the preliminary injunction, and imposed a fine of $500 per proven violation for each of 99/106 documented counts totaling $49,500. Unfortunately, the judge deferred imposition of the $49,500 fine on the condition that Suprema complies going forward and pending reports from an appointed special monitor. 
• June 2026: The City Attorney filed a second motion to find Suprema to find Suprema in contempt of the court order for their ongoing violations of the preliminary injunction including 557 noise, obstruction, and traffic violations in under 2 months, most of which were painstakingly photo/video documented by the most severely impacted neighbors.

PROPERTY UPDATES

941 Aileen St. Warehouse (on Lowell from Aileen to 56th Streets)

• July 2026: Suprema purchased East Bay Fixture’s 34,000 square foot facility, more than doubling their warehouse space and footprint in the neighborhood, with the potential to monopolize more blocks of Lowell St. with increased nuisance impacts to surrounding single family homes, live work lofts, and office/artist space. 
• August 2026: Multiple neighbors complained of unpermitted construction in the roadway generating huge plumes of dust wafting over homes and grinding noise from inside the warehouse. Code Enforcement has yet to investigate. 

Note: Warehousing and distribution require Conditional Use Permit (CUP), which requires public input. A CUP and Zoning clearance is very unlikely to be granted given Suprema’s truck-intensive business and the lack of internal loading bays in this new warehouse. Suprema’s plans for this property are anyone’s guess but based on the illegal use of their other two warehouses, neighbors are bracing for expanded operations without the required Zoning clearance.

955 57th Street Headquarters and Main Warehouse

• February 2025: The City placed a lien on Suprema’s property to secure payment of fines that have been accruing since Building Services declared Suprema a Public Nuisance in 2022 for extensive unpermitted construction in 2013.
• July 2025: Suprema withdrew its appeal of that public nuisance declaration, enabling the City to finally initiate collection of the fines and penalties.
• February 2026: The City gave Suprema until March 2, 2026, to pay $786,000 in accrued fines.
• March 2026: Suprema dodged $786,000 due in fines for Building Services code violations by initially offering just $100,000 upfront and the rest later, then not following up to negotiate a payment plan, leaving the City no choice but to sue for the full amount, which could prolong Suprema’s nonpayment.
• April 2026: A California appeals court judge upheld the City Administrator’s public nuisance declaration in 2020 for noise and right-of-way obstruction and $205,000 in fines and ordered Suprema to pay the City’s costs. To collect, the City will likely need to file another lawsuit or amend its current public nuisance lawsuit that covers all three properties.

952 57^th St. Warehouse (purchased in 2023)

• May 2024: Neighbors reported Suprema for warehousing and distribution operations that are prohibited without a Conditional Use Permit (CUP), which requires a public input process. The City allowed Suprema to keep operating illegally there while they appealed the CUP requirement.
• April 2025: The City’s Planning Commission denied Suprema’s appeal and sharply reprimanded Suprema for operating without a business license or zoning. clearance/permit at that location. Suprema ignored the ruling and failed to appeal it.
• October 2025: Building Services issued a Declaration of Public Nuisance for Suprema’s illegal warehousing and distribution at 952. The $1,000 daily fines began accruing soon after, with no change in Suprema’s illegal operations there.
• March 2026: Building Services has still not escalated enforcement to stop the illegal operations, despite Suprema losing their appeal.