Rent hike has Freak Lunchbox saying bittersweet goodbye to Calgary

Life on 17th Avenue is about to get a little less sweet as a Calgary candy storegets ready to close its doors.

Freak Lunchbox co-owner Jeremy Smith said a looming rent hike was the final straw in a long discussion on whether or not the store could continue in Calgary after six years in operation.

After years of paying $9,400 per month for their17thAvenue storefront, Smith said after a couple extensions of their five-year lease rate, he knew the landlord was eager to sign a new lease at a higherrate around $10,000.

"We can't stay at the same price and we just knew we couldn't do an increase," Smith said.

While the rent may sound high, according to Colliers International, the going rate for space on 17th Avenue is around $50 per square foot making Smith's rent on his 2,000 square foot space on the low side.

The Atlantic Canada-based company operates six stores across the country the five others being in the Atlantic provinces. Smith said it stopped making financial sense to keep running a store in a city where the cost of doing business was so high.

"I can run a store in a city where the real estate is literally a third of the price, sometimes less, but the sales can be the same or better, it just doesn'tmake sense anymore to be in Calgary," he said.

Scott Crockatt, a spokesman for the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, says it's always sad to see a business close, especially a small enterprise.

"This is a story we hear all the time and especially in Calgary in recent years," he said.

"Many businesses have experienced their sales being down a little bit and at the same timethey've seen costs increasing if revenues aren't going up and expenses are, it can be really hard to make the math work."

Smith said the landlord has already found a new tenant the first one who viewed the space signed a lease at the landlord's asking price.

"Obviously the demand is there, Ijust don't think we're the type of company that can handle that.Imean, we sell candy, right?" he said.

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