Peter Lindquist of Blu A Wine & Cheese Stop put together a dish at the shop in the Mercado San Agustin last year. The shop closed its doors Sunday after failing to reach agreement with Mercado owners on a lease.
Blu A Wine & Cheese Stop has left the Mercado San Agustin after failing to come to terms on its lease with the downtown marketplace.
Blu owner Tana Fryer closed the shop at the end of business Sunday. She will sell gift baskets through her website (bluarizona.com) and do catering until she finds a new home, she said Monday.
“For us, it’s been a good journey and we’re excited for what’s next,” said Fryer, who said she wouldn’t be surprised if she found a new location in the next handful of months.
Fryer said the Mercado’s owners had given her a 30-day notice to vacate. She said her rent was paid through October.
The Mercado’s owner, however, said Blu’s closing came as a surprise. Kira Dixon-Weinstein, who owns the marketplace at 100 S. Avenida del Convento, said she knew that the shop would close sooner than later because the two sides were unable to reach an agreement.
“We knew that they weren’t going to stay here long term because they had asked for some rent concessions so we knew there would come a time when they would leave,” said Dixon-Weinstein, who owns Mercado San Agustin with her husband, Adam Weinstein. “They were essentially operating on a month-to-month basis. We had hoped they would have given us a 30-day notice.”
Dixon-Weinstein said she got a number of inquiries on Monday from potential tenants eager to take over the 580-square-foot space in the downtown marketplace. She said she thinks it would be an ideal fit for a “straight-up deli” sandwich shop.
Fryer, in a Facebook posting to customers, said she had been negotiating with the Mercado’s owners “for a while” but had reached “an impasse” and “it has become impossible for us to stay.”
Fryer had worked with the Mercado since 2012, when she began using the downtown marketplace’s commercial kitchen. She opened the shop in January 2014, after spending several months operating a cheese counter at Alfonso Gourmet Olive Oil & Balsamics in St. Philip’s Plaza and Oro Valley.
Dixon-Weinstein said she is confident she will have a new tenant for the Blu space before the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the Mercado will break ground in February on the MSA Annex on the corner of Avenida del Convento and Cushing Street. The modular structure will double the Mercado space, bringing in an additional 13 to 15 small, locally owned businesses.
Dixon-Weinstein said the businesses will be a mix of retail and restaurant and the project also calls for a 500-seat outdoor entertainment space.
The Rio Neuvo Board in August agreed to back the $4.1 million project, according to minutes of that meeting.
