City wants more Cannery Row style franchise stores and their sky high rents. Times are changing, catch a part of the Old Fisherman’s Wharf while it’s still there.
Balesteri said the city wanted to double the rent at the location in the new lease, and while he did not give the exact price, he said the proposed rent was in the neighborhood of $9,000 a month.
The space Balesteri’s rented included three business fronts, in addition to the coffee shop and the gift shop the owner of Paluca Trattoria sublet the restaurant space. Paluca will remain open and has worked out a separate deal with the city.
Balesteri’s is the first of two family owned businesses vacating the wharf over lease negotiation problems. Liberty Fish is not re-upping its lease and is expected to leave early in 2017.