The old Mayflower at Elgin and Cooper is now boarded up after being shut down. The rising cost of rent on Elgin is forcing small businesses to leave Centretown.
There are only a few empty tables at Elgin Street’s newest café, the Ministry of Coffee. It’s mid-afternoon and the roughly 25-seat café is packed as customers pour in and out.
“We were kind of surprised by how much success we’ve already had,” says Fadi Karam, who co-owns the coffee house that opened last spring. “We wanted a high traffic area and this is a really great location.”
While Karam says success has come quickly for his business, in recent months it hasn’t been the same story elsewhere on Elgin. The Mayflower Restaurant and Pub closed down after 35 years last September, Fettuccine’s – an Italian specialty food store – moved off the street in August after 15 years in business, and the Ministry of Coffee replaced Hava Java Specialty Coffee, which had been open since 1992.
“That’s what’s good and bad about Elgin,” says Karam. “If you want this type of exposure, you have to pay for it.”
Many business owners cite expensive leases, with rent prices that rise each year, as the biggest detriment to operating on the street.
“I’m not saying anything bad about the landlords,” says Lucho Yabar, who moved Fettuccine’s off Elgin to Gloucester, “but it was too expensive for me. It’s ridiculous.”
When the Mayflower closed, Walter Krepski, one of the restaurant’s co-owners told Centretown News it was shutting down because of lease negotiations.
“That just confirms the idea that nothing lasts forever,” says Alex Costanza, who co-runs Elgin Street’s Roma Barber Shop, which has been open since 1969.
For Jeff Houlton, the general manager of Woody’s Pub, seeing an establishment like the Mayflower close down was a “shock.”
“Being on a busy street, overhead is definitely an issue that every business has to deal with,” he says.
And with rent rising each year, Yabar says one of the only ways for smaller businesses to stay afloat is by extending the length of their working days.
“You have to ask yourself if you are working to pay the rent or if you are working to have some kind of life?” he says.
Yabar explains he would often work seven days a week, with many workdays lasting as long as 14 to 15 hours.
Since leaving Elgin, Yabar has focused more on delivering, catering and selling Fettuccine’s products to other stores. Yabar’s pre-prepared meals now can be found at four other locations, including Boushey’s Fruit Market on Elgin.
He says the change in business strategy and the lower rent he pays in Ottawa’s east end has allowed him to free up his schedule, giving him more of a chance to expand his business with less stress.
“I love where I am now,” he says. “I miss Elgin, but I love my schedule now. "