‘A kick in the teeth’: Langford health store leaving town after facing 86% rent hike

A Langford health store is set to shut down and move after its landlord tried to hike his rent by 86 per cent.

OakTree Naturals owner Aman Jiwani says new landlords recently took over the Goldstream Avenue plaza where he’s run his store for the past five years. Back in October, when his five-year lease was up for negotiation, the landlord said they’d be hiking rents by 86 per cent due to increasing market rates.

Through negotiation, Jiwani was able to whittle that down to 66 per cent, but decided it was still too steep a price to pay. Plus, the landlord had slashed the eviction notice they had to give Jiwani from nine months to six, something he said he didn’t want hanging over his head.

“So being here for five years, we spent quite a bit of money getting it all set up and had five years plus another five years available as (lease extension) options already,” said Jiwani. “So we could have been here for a total of 15.”

Jiwani noted the costly upgrades to the lights and the ventilation he paid for, which is money he’ll now have lost.

But the company has found a new home in the Hillside area where the Victoria Soap Exchange is based. The green soap maker is a supplier to OakTree, and Jiwani says the cheaper rent, timing and existing working relationship means he hopes both companies will be able to grow working together. The plan is to shut down before the lease is up on April 30.

“We’ll be leaving here with a smile on our face. We feel that it was a kick in the teeth but we’re over that now. We thank all of our Langford customers for everything they’ve done with us and for us.”

Jiwani said the plan is to continue serving West Shore customers, with plans to do free deliveries to the West Shore once a week.

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Last year, residential tenants were given some protection when the provincial government introduced a cap on rent increases of two per cent. Jiwani says he’d like to see the same for businesses who are renewing their leases.

“I think there should be a cap on what existing tenants have to pay. If we were a new tenant coming in, and that was the market value, then I would understand that’s the market value, but as an existing tenant providing a service to the community … we’ve got pretty good relations with a lot of community members. They’re the ones who are losing out also.”

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