The Albany Business Review reported yesterday that Rare Form Brewing in downtown Troy will be closing temporarily while they find and move to a new location. Apparently, lease negotiations didn’t work out.
The article didn’t go into more detail about why lease negotiations didn’t work out, but this is just the more recent in what feels like an increasing trend of established independent businesses being forced out by their landlords because of issues with re-negotiating a lease. A number of businesses in Stuyvesant Plaza have closed under similar circumstances (Different Drummer’s Kitchen and Penzey’s Spices, for example). And in Troy several years ago, a venture of Vic Christopher’s failed because he hadn’t secured ownership of the building first and couldn’t renegotiate the lease.
It’s a shame though, because in many cases, the location only becomes valuable because of the existence of the successful business that’s being forced out. If the landlord cares more about money than the community (as is clear with the Massachusetts company that bought Stuyvesant Plaza), we’re going to be left with only mediocre national chain establishments with their higher margins.
It’s really not ideal to have a situation where the only way to build a successful hospitality business is to be a successful contractor and build and maintain your own property. Hospitality is hard enough without having to learn a whole different (and similarly skilled) trade.
I suspect this problem will only get worse as real estate gets more expensive and the wealthy increase in power under the Trump regime. Hopefully some ethical landlords remain, or we’re not going to be left with any small independent businesses.