The planned Pitchfork Market + Kitchen in Saskatoon’s Midtown mall has been cancelled after Midtown sent the company a lease termination notice on Tuesday.
Pitchfork is upset with the news, as they were planning to start construction on the store soon.
After its first successful location in Saskatoon’s Rosewood neighbourhood, the Pitchfork Market + Kitchen was planning to expand. The company initially planned to open a grocery store in the mall in September 2023, but faced delays. Construction on the store was set to begin in January 2024 with an opening planned for late summer or early fall 2024.
Jeffrey Drexel, president of Pitchfork, explains that partner company Arbutus Properties has incurred multiple delays.
“We had some delays on our Rosewood affordable housing project. Because of that our second Pitchfork location has also been delayed. Due to inflation and uncertainty in the market, we also took some extra time to solidify our concept for the new store. We did not want to disappoint anyone when we opened. We communicated with Midtown through this process the entire way.”
Drexel says he knows Midtown was not happy with the delay of over a year, but he did not expect the lease to be suddenly terminated. He says that Midtown asked him and his company to send a proposal for a plan for how long the construction would take and when the store would open. When that plan was sent over, they got a lease termination notice as a reply. Drexel says his company cannot do anything to fight the decision and it is up to the mall to change their mind.
Midtown mall provided Global News with a short statement: “Unfortunately, after over two-and-a-half years of working with Pitchfork, the tenant has failed to meet its lease obligations and will not be opening at Midtown.”
The decision has hit Pitchfork and Arbutus hard.
“We already invested about 750,000 dollars into this project, drafting plans and buying initial equipment. We were planning to invest an additional six million dollars in the store, but now that is all cancelled,” Drexel said.
Drexel is worried about damage to the reputation of the existing Pitchfork location.
“This will absolutely damage our brand. People were very excited about the store and so were we. For now we will be taking some time to assess where to go. We are still hoping to figure something out, but this is a messy situation and we have thrown away a lot of money if this decision stands. So we are going to be extra careful going forward.”
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