Plans have fallen through for a proposed specialty coffee and tea shop in the Arcade Building, 1 Riverside Road, in Riverside.
Urban Leaf and Bean Cafe, which signed a lease for the former Grumpy’s space on the ground floor of the Arcade Building in November 2011, terminated the lease earlier this month, said Yvonne Agnello-Adams, one of the four women involved in the venture.
The lease had a provision stating that if the business was not able to get all of its approvals and be open within 60 days, the women could terminate the lease and get back their two-month deposit.
Agnello-Adams blamed the inability on opening within 60 days on the plan approval process. The women did not hire an architect until the lease was already signed, and the village sent back plans for changes twice, said Agnello-Adams.
Village Manager Peter Scalera said the village dealt with plans in a timely fashion.
“I disagree the review process was lengthy,” said Scalera. “The village tried to expedite the plan review as quick as possible.”
Agnello-Adams admitted that aspects of the interior renovation of the space turned out to be more costly than anticipated. But not getting approvals from the village in time was the deal breaker, she said.
“We got to the point where if we don’t vacate right now, we’re not going to be able to do it,” Agnello-Adams said.
The women are looking elsewhere in Riverside for a potential location, said Agnello-Adams, and they haven’t ruled out the Arcade Building, which was their first choice.
“Luckily we came out of this with more knowledge and not too many scrapes,” said Agnello-Adams.
Bob Uphues
