A PRETZEL kiosk at Festival Place that has been open for more than 10 years is forced to shut down as its owner said the mall landlord is “refusing to give him a deal”.
The Basingstoke franchise of Auntie Anne’s, which opened at Festival Place in October 2011, is closing down today (Sunday, January 30) forever.
Martin Kandrac, the owner of the franchise, said the Festival Place landlord CBRE are not doing anything to help the kiosks and are also asking them to pay full rent for the lockdown period.
“We couldn’t do an agreement with the landlord,” Mr Kandrac said.
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“The conditions they offer are really not viable. They are not interested in any long-term lease. They require us to repay the amounts for the lockdown which we couldn’t afford at all. They are not willing to do any sort of deal.”
Mr Kandrac said he has been in communication with Mall Solutions that deal with the kiosks at the Festival Mall on behalf of CBRE.
But the two parties failed to find an agreement for a long-term lease.
“I sent them (Mall Solutions) my offer and they spoke with the landlord, but there just wasn’t any interest from them to do this business,” Mr Kandrac said.
“They did not even bother to send me a reply. After I chased them, I got hold of them after 10 days and they said ‘no’ to the offer. So, I asked if there is any counter-offer and they just said ‘no’ again.
“They said I didn’t pay the full rent for the lockdown. I said we can’t afford it. The footfall in the Festival Place has fallen to 27 per cent average compared to 2019, which is quite a lot for us. So, from Monday to Friday, we were losing money. We make profits only on weekends. This has to be reflected in the lease conditions. But they just weren’t interested in a long-term lease.”
The Festival Place was closed for a long period in 2020 and 2021 when the government had issued lockdown restrictions in the country.
“When the restrictions were eased, we tried to stay open and I was making more losses,” Mr Kandrac said.
“The conditions are difficult for businesses like us in Basingstoke. You can see 40 per cent of all the units in Festival Place are empty. Even then the landlord is not active or willing to do anything to improve.”
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The store has up to 12 staff during busy seasons and eight during quiet periods.
The staff – most of them mums and students doing part-time work – are going to be jobless from tomorrow.
“We don’t know what to do next,” Mr Kandrac said.
“We will probably sell off everything we own – all the equipment and everything – and look for another job.”
CBRE have been contacted for a comment.
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