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Local salon may close due to rent hike
By Gretchen Knaup
Ms. Lydia's Salon, a historic house turned salon, is under threat of closing because of a 78 percent rent hike. Salon owner Lydia Barta was able to bargain with her landlord to get a more reasonable 32 percent increase. However, this deal is only secure until the end of the year, after which she will have to bargain again with the new owner.
Barta has paid a rent of $5,000 a month since Aug. 1, and she says a further rent increase in the year 2002 would force her to leave.
"I just wouldn't be able to afford it," she said.
Barta said her landlord put the house up for sale after Barta declined his offer to buy it.
"He wanted to sell it to me for $850,000, and he didn't want any Realtors involved," she said. "I'm not sure how much the house is worth for certain, but I know it's not worth $850,000! Not with the market the way it is."
Barta says she has been on a five-year lease throughout which the rent has never been raised. "The lease was up in July, and now it is month to month," Barta explained. She bargained with her landlord, Tom Whitford, for the $5,000 rent price, but she doesn't think it will last.
"I don't think he will go for it," she said. "My other part of the proposal is that he protect me in making the new buyers honor my new lease ... I am the perfect tenant, too. I never call that man for repairs, and I pay all the utilities including water, sewage and garbage. He pays nothing, he just collects."
According to Whitford, he is just trying to renegotiate the lease into something that is closer to market rent.
"I offered her the option to buy it, but that wasn't something she wanted to do," he said. "She indicated that she could not afford the first rent amount we talked about, so I am still trying to work something out with her. It won't be as high as I had first thought."
Whitford also said he would not force her to move out unnecessarily.
"The rent has to go up somewhat though," Whitford said, but then added, "I have no intention of making Lydia leave. She has been a very good tenant."
Lydia Barta said she opened the salon at 301 S. Sunnyvale Ave. five years ago, but not before she spent an extensive amount of time and money renovating the house as well as the yards.
"This place was a dump!" she said. "The people around here were just so happy I was making this old house look nice again."
Barta said she has put in $30,000 of her own money into its renovation.
"I spent $5,550 on the outside paint job alone," she said. "I didn't want to lose any of the Victorian accents on the house because it is so historical."
According to Barta, from Evelyn all the way to Washington Avenue, the other side of Sunnyvale Avenue is part of a historical zone. "So you can't touch that side, but for this side of the street, there is no protection," said Barta.
Barta said the house was 73 years old when she started to lease it from Whitford. She then remodeled the three-bedroom house into a full-service salon.
She said she also turned the kitchen and dining rooms into working rooms. Barta brought in furniture and decorations from her own home in order to make the salon feel like a home to her clients. "I try to put my own personal stuff in to give it a personal feel," she said.
Alberto's Salon, also downtown, has had a similar situation with its rent recently increasing to $7,000 a month. According to Barta, they have decided to turn their hair salon into a facial salon and, therefore, had to let all their hair stylists go. "They were told that they have until Sept. 14 to leave," she said. "Two of them are coming to work for me."
Alberto's and Ms. Lydia's are the only two house salons left in Sunnyvale.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
