Closing in on its final two months, Sugar’s Campus Store at 35th and O Streets is still doing business as usual, serving up shakes and sandwiches to the afternoon crowd.

But outside, Georgetown’s sleepy neighborhood has become the backdrop for a pitched political battle over the fate of the famous diner, and the stakes may be getting higher. A coalition of students hope to stop Sugar’s from closing at the end of May, and the store’s owners, Chol and Esther Kim, have the backing of an attorney from a powerful Washington law firm.

Nabeel Audeh (GRD ’90), who owns the building that Sugar’s occupies, has said he won’t renew the Kims’ lease when it expires May 31. Audeh said he’s trying to make the most of his investment in the building and doesn’t understand some students who are suggesting he’s taking pleasure in the Kims’ departure.

“This isn’t personal at all,” he said.

Audeh, who also owns Wisemiller’s Deli, also said that Kim has made no improvements to the interior of Sugar’s during his ownership of the establishment and that the store has been cited by the city government as not up to code.

“If I don’t protect my investment, nobody else will,” Audeh said.

Audeh said that he has no definite plans for the space once it is vacated, but hopes to renovate it. He is considering opening his own coffee shop with wireless Internet access, but also said that a number of brokers for other companies have approached him about renting the space.

But Chol Kim, who has run Sugar’s since 1992, said he has had a “very difficult” time talking to Audeh about his decision not to renew the lease, and that Audeh never provided him with a reason for his decision. He added that he has not had difficulty paying the rent.

And while Audeh said he gave the Kims an initial extension on their lease when it was first set to expire in December, Chol Kim said Audeh’s decision took him totally by surprise.

Asked about his and his wife’s financial future, Kim said it was “very uncertain.”

“I’m still young enough to work for the rest of my life,” he said with a laugh.

But for those most staunchly behind Sugar’s, the possibility of challenging or even reversing Audeh’s decision remains worth pursuing.

John Froemming, an attorney at the high-profile Howrey law firm in the District, recently agreed to represent the Kims on a pro bono basis. Kim said he was introduced to Froemming by a Georgetown professor and frequent customer whose name he said he couldn’t remember.

Froemming called Chol Kim “a man of great integrity” and said that he had made improvements to Sugar’s since taking ownership of it. He also alleged that Audeh has overcharged Kim on rent.

Audeh would not discuss specifics concerning Kim’s rent payments.

Citing attorney-client privilege, Froemming declined to say whether or not he was considering legal action to keep Sugar’s in operation, though he said nothing had been ruled out. He said that Audeh’s legal right to decline to renew the lease was not being challenged, but added that Sugar’s status as a Georgetown institution needed to be considered as well.

Sugar’s name has arisen as a point of contention itself. There has been a Sugar’s at the spot since it opened as a drugstore in 1917. Kim paid around $250,000 for the rights to the name in 1992 and has sought compensations, but Audeh has refused to meet Kim’s request.

At its Feb. 28 meeting, the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission passed a resolution commending Sugar’s for 89 years of operation in Georgetown.

“Businesses such as Sugar’s give Georgetown the unique charm which brought so many of us to the area,” the resolution said.

Brett Clements (COL ’07), the sole student commissioner on the ANC, noted that Sugar’s had become a popular Georgetown institution and that its fans appreciated its down-home appeal. But he said that Audeh, who is a small business owner as well as a Georgetown graduate, had also built a positive reputation in the community.

Not everyone agrees. Jack Carlson (SFS ’09), one of the coordinators of Save Sugar’s, the student group that formed last month in the hope of keeping the diner alive, said that Sugar’s provides a welcome contrast to the “grunginess” and “rude attitude of the people who work at Wisey’s.”

He added that Save Sugar’s is planning to continue its efforts to maintain the diner. In addition to working through the local government, Carlson said the group hopes to hold a promotional event at Sugar’s sometime in the next two weeks.

The tactics used by Carlson’s groups have often become quite personal. At the last ANC meeting, Carlson and other students said that Audeh recently made renovations to his Georgetown home without obtaining the proper permit, which they said calls into questions his business skills.

Audeh said that he had since obtained a permit for the renovation.

The university, which owns the land on which Wisemiller’s is located, isn’t taking sides in the dispute. Spokesman Erik Smulson said that Georgetown had no authority to influence Audeh’s business decisions.