Owner of Wyandotte Coffee Shop The Grind ‘Forced to Close’ by New Landlords

The owner of the local coffee shop, The Grind says she was forced to close her business after new owners raised the rent in excess of what she considers to be a reasonable amount.

Rumors circulating about the closing of the coffee shop due to owner Rose Henry’s retirement were not true.

Although Henry did tell sources close to the business that she was planning on selling in the near the future, she was never planning on retiring. 

“I am not retiring,” Henry said Monday. “I was forced to close because the sale fell through” when the potential buyers were informed by the landlord that the rent would increase over 73 percent to somewhere between $2,600 and $2,900 a month, she said.  

Henry was renting from the former owners of the building before it was sold to a local business owner last month.

Henry said she wanted to sell the business because it was the right time for she and her family.

“My children were grown, since one is away at college and the other will be graduating soon, I’m not needed as much anymore,” she said.

Henry tried to sell the business several times. In fact, she had “three excellent buyers who wanted to buy it, and keep it operating,” she said. “But, due to the increase in rent, they all walked.”  

“If the rent had stayed the same price, I could have easily sold it and the business would have remained open,” she said.

“It really hurt me because I did not want to do that. Every time I see a longtime customer it just breaks my heart.”

Many patrons expressed outrage on Facebook following news of the closure.

Michael Robillard said: “If that is true about who bought the property and raised the rent, I guess we lose one business and stop giving our business to another.”

“Why don't you take it up with…Wyandotte Patch? They wrote the retirement story. This is ridiculous,” April Smith Ciolek said. 

Rene Terese Navarre-Shureb said: “She did not retire...I say customers picket in front of (the) store saying we want Rose back!”

Others were a bit subtler.

“Business owners further spreading rumors are not making their businesses look very good,” Phyllis Rosa said. 

Pat Clarkson said: “Hate to see it go. Loved seeing all the motorcycles parked out front and sitting out there.”

Henry also feels that she was kept in the dark during the sale.

“To this day, I have not seen any type of legal change of ownership,” she said. “I’m just going by what has transpired.”

andrew.thurlow@patch.com