Only In Marin
The lease increase would take the monthly rent from about $3,800 to $6,200. That’s a lot of candy apples.
Exiled from Main Street By Bill Meagher
P eople say change is good. It keeps things fresh. Change brings novel ideas and new people. Tell that to Jenny Torres. Torres, a former teacher, owns The Candy Store on Main Street at 7 Main St. in Tiburon. But her business is shopping for a new home because Torres couldn’t afford the 61% bump that A&C Ventures of Sonoma ordered up. The lease increase would take the monthly rent from about $3,800 to $6,200. That’s a lot of candy apples.
candy shop pays that kind of cash. The high price tag allows them to bring in a tenant with that kind of green while politely pushing The Candy Store out the door. It could also be that A&C has another business lined up or The Candy Store isn’t what A&C wants.
The company let Torres know last December she could expect an increase in her rent. A&C has been active in changing how downtown Tiburon looks and feels, having shuffled tenants and recruiting new ones over the last few years. One of the new faces is that of celebrity restaurant owner Michael Mina and his Bungalow Kitchen, right by the former Candy Store, at 5 Main St. The tale of The Candy Store vs. A&C makes for a good David vs. Goliath sequel. The 33-year-old Torres powered by her entrepreneurial dreams and Jelly Bellys vs. A&C toting square feet totals and ownership leverage. Torres is looking to relocate her store, and possibly keep it in Tiburon. If that location can be found, it will be free of A&C ownership. Your Marin moment Tiburon isn’t the only place where things look different. The former site of the Novato Theater on Grant Avenue has been purchased by Novato residents Matthew and Julia Burns. He owns Sandbank Construction. The property was sold by nonprofit Novato Theater after a years-long effort to rehab the property. The sale was for $375,000
The lease changes aren’t limited to its price. The Candy Store would also assume other costs including building insurance, maintenance, property tax and utilities. Essentially A&C wanted to move the retailer to a traditional Triple Net style arrangement. The Candy Store has been around since 1997. Torres always had a soft spot for the sweet shop since first working there as a teenager. In 2015, at the ripe old age of 24, Torres purchased the store. Now she had skin in the bonbon business. A&C owns the building that houses The Candy Store, along with lots of other properties in Tiburon. The
company holds about 35% of the commercial properties in downtown Tiburon including a pair of parking lots. In turn A&C is owned by ACV Argo Tiburon LP. ACV has a national property portfolio of more than 200 properties carrying a value of $850 million according to its Facebook page. A&C was founded in 1992. In a statement to NorthBay biz, A&C said it thanked the Candy Store for serving Tiburon, and A&C is proud to invest in Tiburon offering a mix of vibrant retail and office spaces. A little background: A&C and Argonaut Investments purchased 72,000 square feet of commercial property from MSP Tiburon LP in 2012. MSP was owned by Ed Zelinsky and family, a wheel in downtown Tiburon for years. Tiburon’s ferry landing bears the Zelinsky name. A&C was chosen as the business of the year in 2022 by the Tiburon Peninsula Chamber of Commerce for its efforts to reshape the downtown area. A&C sees the tony area by the water as place where visitors should spend time and dollars as they peruse unique retail boutiques and fine-dining establishments. And to be fair, A&C is in the business of maximizing the return on its assets, just as Torres was in business for a profit. The rub of course is that A&C’s return impacts Torres ability to turn a profit. A&C’s proposed lease increase sounds draconian, but the reality is the real estate company is behaving like others in the same game. They have examined the market and feel the $6,200 a month is a fair price for a prime location on Tiburon’s main drag. It also knows that Donald Trump will become a reasoned human before a
The Candy Store’s gonna need to sell a lot of caramel apples to afford its rent increase. [Facebook]
with the proceeds going to the City of Novato. Over the years, the city sunk better than $1 million into the building, which was gutted with a plan to transform the property into an entertainment center for the downtown area. The Burns’ plan to turn the building into a mixed-use property, with a cafe on the ground floor, and an office on the second floor, along with three apartments. Through the years, extensive fundraising was done to contribute to the costs of transforming the property, but rehabbing the 6,400-square-foot property wasn’t cheap. The revenues from the sale went to the city as part of its agreement with Novato Theater. g
Bill Meagher is a contributing editor at this publication and writes this column each month. He is also a senior reporter with The Deal, a Manhattan-based digital financial news outlet.
June 2024
NorthBaybiz 29
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