B & O Espresso: Soon to go?
The B&O will stay in Capitol Hill. That much seems certain. But no one — including owner Majed Lukatah — seems to know whether the coffee shop and bakery will remain at its current location at Olive and Belmont or whether it will soon move into a vacant space somewhere else in the neighborhood.
For Lukatah, it’s a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. If he stays where he is, he’d have to close the shop when construction begins on that corner, in spring of 2007. It will be a mixed-use building and the developer, John Stoner, says he still doesn’t know whether the proposed six stories and 72 units will be apartments or condos. Either way, says Stoner, he’d like to have B&O anchoring the ground floor — as a tenant or as the owner of that retail space. Though he is still considering a few different building designs, Stoner is offering Lukatah 4,000-4,500 square feet, which is roughly its size today.
But Lukatah says he’s fed up with the uncertainty that comes with paying rent. In 1998 he tried to buy the property — he just couldn’t compete with Stoner, who paid nearly a million dollars. And Lukatah does not seemed inclined to wait around for Stoner to make up his mind about whether to sell or lease the B&O space. Finally, his business would suffer mightily during the construction, as B&O customers might wander into other coffee shops, never to return.
So the B&O is looking — with an increasing level of urgency — for a new location. Lukatah told me yesterday that he is excited about one potential location on the south side of Capitol Hill, and while negotiating with that seller he is investigating a lead that would allow him to stay closer to his Belmont/Olive customer base. The B&O has only seven months left on its lease, so if Lukatah wants to open a new shop elsewhere, he wants to buy it (no more leasing) and start building very soon.
I’ll be keeping in touch with Lukatah about the future of his shop, as well as with Stoner to learn what will come of his development.
please do keep us posted, and unlike the tofu coming from Erica and Josh, this is actually useful information.