Tenants at the Victoria Public Market were left stunned on Thursday morning after catching wind that they will be evicted from the property in 180 days.
Townline Properties revealed that the market will be redeveloped into a grocery store expected to open early next year, and that seven tenants now have just six months to vacate their spaces.
Owners from around the market said they had heard rumblings over the past several months that the company was planning to transition into a grocery store, but had never been given any official word.
Marie Takahashi, owner of Two Crows Craft Foods, said the writing was almost on the wall.
"We saw no new businesses come in, leases not being extended, and business slowing down," Takahashi said. "We reached out to Townline repeatedly for clarification, and they have lied to us every step of the way. This is beyond frustrating for all of us."
Takahashi said the news about the eviction came in a more than unorthodox way.
"We were told that they (Townline) wanted to meet with us at 10 a.m. Before that, cameras were here telling us that we would be closing down," she said. "When they arrived, we already knew. It was beyond disrespectful of them to present this news in this fashion."
Two Crows weren't the only ones taken by shock. Elaun Cable, owner of Whisk Victoria and an original business from its opening in 2012, felt that Townline should have been more upfront about their plans, given the speculation over the past several months.
"It was all hearsay. There was no communication from the landlord about future plans or vision or anything like that," Cable said. "This place had the potential to be something special in Victoria, but I feel as if the landlords always had other intentions."
Cable said Townline even made them an offer with an incentive to vacate the premises if they were able to leave within 90 days.
"Our lease was set to expire in six months regardless, but it wasn't fair in the fashion that this news came out," Cable said. "For us to wake up on a random morning and to find out from a news station just isn't right."
Bhavani Sekhawa, one of the owners of family-run Shashwat Indian Cuisine, said they had also tried to reach out to Townline previously, and struggled to gain any information from them regarding the future of the market.
"We tried to reach out to the management of Townline Properties, but we never got any information," Sekhawa said. "We feel so disrespected to be honest, finding out from other news sources rather than your own management company is not the way to do business."
Shashwat Indian Cuisine, which opened in January 2022 and has served as a regular fixture in the market, felt especially discouraged when seeing so many other businesses leave prior to the news.
"We really enjoyed having a spot here, we felt comfortable, and loved serving our customers," Sekhawa said. "But we weren't given a choice in this matter, so now we will have to re-evaluate what is next."
With the eviction notice setting a firm deadline, the stunned tenants now face the daunting task of relocating their businesses on extremely short notice, marking an abrupt end to a longstanding chapter in Victoria’s public market history.
