Saturday, March 8, 2008

Moving, buy why?

We came to a very hard decision over the last few weeks that we would have to move out of our Florida Ave location. I have been asked more times than I can count, why? We had lots of reasons for leaving and for staying. We live in Seminole Heights, within walking distance of the shop. On the other hand, our customers were from all over the bay and often asked for a more convenient location. While we are talking about convenience, that takes us to the parking problem. As those who frequented our shop and Cappy's know, there is not an abundance of parking at the shop. Often customers would become frustrated when looking for a space and pass by without returning. Our parking problem had very little to do with Cappy's and much more to do with the other residents and workers in our building who would park directly in front of our shop on a daily basis. Also, anyone that asked us knew there was no bathroom in our unit and in order to reach one in the building they had to trek through another renter's unit and down a hallway that looked like something out of a horror movie. Seminole Heights has very little retail space and when we calculated our square footage - 740 and took our rent we found we were paying a little more than $20 per sqft. That is the going rate for retail space in a newly renovated space downtown. I hope that this helps everyone understand our reasons for looking for a new space. Since we were doing well and gaining customers it was very difficult to move. We just couldn't justify paying rent in that spot another month, so we are very close to signing the papers on a new spot. We hoped to expand in our location, but that was not possible because of the constraints of the building. We have scoured Seminole Heights for a new spot, but suitable retail spots are just not available or tied to owners that have very little interest in market rates, much less accomodating emerging businesses. We know that more spaces will be developed in the future, but we also know that our neighborhood will be in transition for years to come. The new place, wherever it is, should have everything you've asked for - easier to find, better parking, and more room for great stuff! Please bear with us and know that we are fully committed to making this transition as smooth and quick as possible. We are going virtual until then, so just drop us an email and watch our website for updates.