La Coop Coffee Shop in struggle with landlord who tried to force them out of their property
/La Coop Coffee Company, located at 1st and Kennedy Street NW in Brightwood.
by Cesse Ip and Drew Schneider
La Coop Coffee Company opened off of Kennedy Street at 5505 1st St NW this past July, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine. The coffee served at La Coop is directly sourced from the Association of Coffee Growers of Union Cantinil (ASOCUC) in Guatemala, an organization formed by Juan Luis Salazar, the co-owner of La Coop. Salazar said he started ASOCUC with the goal of empowering coffee farmers, and pays them 40 percent more than market price, allowing ASOCUC to invest in their local communities and supporting the most vulnerable sector of the supply chain. La Coop’s noble cause resonated with neighbors, and the coffee shop has been successfully surviving the pandemic.
However, a speedbump was dropped in La Coop’s path when their landlord, Charles Paret of Coloma River Capital, tried to erect a fence around the La Coop building late on election night. The building next door, also owned by Paret, had been boarded up the previous day. According to DC Zoning Board records, Coloma River Capital has plans to build a 46-unit apartment building at this corner, and had a hearing with the DC Zoning Board in February 2019 to propose the plan.
The corner building of 5501 1st Street, off of Kennedy Street NW, has already been boarded up.
Petworth News talked to Salazar, the co-owner of La Coop, who recalled that Paret came to them a week after they opened in July and told them that he was selling the building and already had a buyer. According to Salazar, Paret said that he needed them to leave and would set them up with a food truck, even though La Coop’s lease is until January 2022 with no termination clause.
The next day, the potential buyer came by the property to talk to Salazar. Once the buyer realized that La Coop was not leaving, Salazar said the potential buyer decided to back out of the deal. Salazar said that almost immediately Paret called him screaming and crying, saying that he was going to damage their business and needed them to leave.
The evening’s drama didn’t stop employees from serving customers on Wednesday morning.
At that point, Salazar said he stopped talking to his landlord on the phone due to his belligerence, adding that Paret started to send him regular correspondence about how they needed to leave the building.
All of this came to a head on election night when Paret tried to close down the business by erecting a fence around the building. Salazar said he saw the activity on their security cameras and called police, who arrived by the time Salazar and his wife Stefanie arrived at La Coop. The workers left, and the fence was not erected.
Concrete foot pads are left behind next to the La Coop building, as workers prepared to board it up on Tuesday night.
La Coop posted a live video feed on Instagram, where you can hear Paret yelling to the gathered crowd in the background, “Guys, this is a pop up, it was never supposed to stay here!”
However, this past February at an official meeting with the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, Paret is on the record touting his background in “historic, old building preservation” and his passion for “trying to empower small business owners.” He also tells the board that “La Coop Coffee is opening, which will be really, really nice.”
Last night several neighbors and Ward 4 Councilmember-Elect Janeese Lewis George came to support La Coop all congregated at La Coop to provide support. Paret was heard shouting, “This is not the end!”
Petworth News reached out to Coloma River Capital but they have not commented yet at the time of publication.
What’s unclear is why a 2-year lease was offered to La Coop if Coloma River Capital already had plans to demolish the building and build a 46-unit apartment complex on the land.
The neighborhood came out strong on Wednesday to support La Coop, and there’s surely more to come as details come out.
