Lucabe Coffee in downtown Columbus was granted a short lease extension Monday.
Republic file photo
Lucabe Coffee Co. is extending the lease on its downtown location.
On Monday, the Columbus Redevelopment Commission approved Lucabe LLC’s request to amend its lease on the shop’s downtown location. According to commission President Al Roszczyk, the approved change extends the shop’s lease from March 31 to the end of June.
It also pushes back the business’s deadline to give notice of renewal or termination. Commission attorney Stan Gamso said that the previous deadline to do so was the end of December; it will now be April 1, 2022.
Prior to the meeting, co-founder and co-owner Tyler Hodge said that the owners are seeking this extension so that they have more time to discuss the next lease term.
The coffee shop opened a second location in midtown Columbus a few months ago.
“Given the state of downtown’s much lower traffic numbers, we aren’t sure we will be renewing under the current terms, so we need time to discuss through that,” said Hodge. “We don’t intend on going anywhere, but downtown isn’t the same it was two years ago, and there’s not much clarity yet that it will be changing dramatically in 2022.”
He said earlier this month that the new location has “far exceeded” the downtown spot in performance. The coffee shop saw a reduction of about 40% from July to September downtown, and it was flat afterward. He said contributing factors included students returning to school, weather growing colder, a lack of Cummins employees downtown, more convenience at the new location, and fewer attractions to draw customers downtown.
While Hodge expressed some optimism about downtown, he also said that he and other restaurant owners are concerned about the area, particularly amid the cold season.
“We’re essentially at a break-even level downtown,” he said. “And that can be sustained for a period of time but not indefinitely.”
The downtown coffee shop is located at 310 Fourth St. Officials said that the restaurant Bistro 310 vacated the space in December 2014, and efforts to find a new tenant in 2015 were unsuccessful. In August of 2016, the commission gave its approval for legal counsel to begin contract negotiations with Lucabe to open a shop in the 3,774-square-foot space.
Terms were finalized in February of 2017, and a five-year lease agreement was signed.
“They have two five-year terms,” Columbus Redevelopment Director Heather Pope told The Republic. “They are nearing the anniversary of their first term, and so they have one more five-year term.”
