10 Years Ago: Tanning Salon Gets Burned By Landlord

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Barrhaven Independent, August 14, 2014

Darcy MacLennan woke up in the middle of the night, realizing that the lease at Palm Beach Mega Tan would soon be up for renewal.

Two days later, she received an e-mail from RioCan, informing her that she would have to vacate her spot in the mall by September 18, 2014.

“I called our corporate office and the owner of Palm Beach Mega Tan told me not to worry about it and to give the landlord a call,” MacLennan said.

MacLennan called, and she was informed that a new tenant would be taking over her spot in the mall, and that she had to vacate in September.

In the lease she signed in 2004, there was a clause that said she would have to inform RioCan one year before its expiration if she intended to stay.

“It was the fine print in a long lease signed 10 years ago,” MacLennan said. “Of course we had every intention of staying. We just renewed our franchise agreement with Palm Beach. RioCan had even come around and collected 12 post-dated cheques earlier this year.”

MacLennan said that a new tenant was taking over the old Randall’s location, and that they would be knocking down the wall between the two spots as the required both store areas. A sandwich board sign promoting a fitness centre was placed on the sidewalk near the location at RioCan.

Representatives from RioCan did not return our repeated calls to comment on the situation.

MacLennan said she was “devastated” when she found out she would be losing her storefront, and she is still looking for options.

“I’m still in shock,” she said. “We have been a perfect tenant for more than 10 years, and now we are being forced out. We are losing our business, we are losing our investment, and our employees are losing their jobs. It’s horrible for us.”

Palm Beach Mega Tan currently has five employees as it is the offseason, but in the winter, their business is much steadier and more employees are brought on. RioCan does not have another spot in the mall that Palm Beach can move into.

MacLennan said that the investment in her current location for the electrical needs of the tanning salon was $60,000.

“If we did find a location, our cost of moving would be about $100,000,” she said. “We would have to have our electrical requirements met, and then we would have moving and administration costs on top of that. Even if we found a location that is suitable, I don’t know if we can do it.”

MacLennan said that when she got the Palm Beach Mega Tan franchise in 2004, getting the business was contingent on getting a spot in the RioCan Marketplace.

“It’s the only location that we wanted,” she said. “It’s the best location in Barrhaven, and with the bridge now open, it’s an even better location. If I couldn’t get into the RioCan Mall, I don’t think we would have moved forward.”

Another problem that is upsetting MacLennan involves her customer base. Palm Beach would have no way of refunding their thousands of customers for packages that they have purchased. She would have to approach other tanning salons to see if the minutes sold can be transferred. Over the past 10 years, Palm Beach Mega Tan has had more than 21,000 customers in Barrhaven, Manotick and the surrounding area.

MacLennan is spending most of this month at the front counter of her business, explaining the situation to her customers.

“I feel really bad for everyone,” she said. “They are all being blindsided by this, and a lot of our customers still don’t know that we have to leave.”

A final sticking point with RioCan for Palm Beach Mega Tan was the last two months of operation.

“We have to be open and we have to pay the bills and have our staff here,” MacLennan said. “We can’t sell any packages and we have very little means of making money. We can sell lotions and single tans, but most of our revenue comes from selling minutes. We can’t do that anymore. It would be fraudulent.”

MacLennan contacted RioCan asking if she could have a break in her rent for the past two months, since she has no way of covering her operating expenses. RioCan emailed her back, refusing her request.

MacLennan said she will never know, but she is suspecting that RioCan wanted her business out of the location to make room for whatever is going in there.

“They didn’t communicate with me at all about the lease, and I would guess that once I didn’t contact them, they had their way to get us out of here,” she said. “They should have contacted me. Don’t you think if our lease was coming up they would have sent a reminder or a notice? And who knows, maybe if we would have told them we wanted to renew, they could have jacked our rent up so high we couldn’t have stayed anyway.”

Featured Image: Darcy MacLennan owned and operated Palm Beach Mega Tan in Barrhaven until 2014.