Kruunuvuorenranta construction sites drive away customers, according to the barber entrepreneur. According to the City of Helsinki, a nearby construction site is not a reason for rent reductions.
entrepreneur Saad Ismail suffering in the midst of losses in Helsinki’s Kruununvuorenranta.
According to him, the nearby road construction site has significantly reduced the barber shop’s customers. Ismail has asked the city for help in paying the store’s rent, but to no avail.
Ismail, who works as an entrepreneur of the barbershop chain Damask, had initially thought that establishing a new office in a growing residential area would be profitable. There would be more and more customers as the apartments filled up, but the competitors would not have had time to open yet.
The start was cautious, there was only one barber present. After six months, there were more customers, and another employee joined the shop.
Now the Kruunuvuorenranta business has been open for a good couple of years, and is making a loss every month. There is only one employee left.
Works related to the Kruunusillat tram are being carried out on Haakonlinlahdenkatu.
Entrepreneurial in his opinion, the reason is above all the road site, and he says that many customers have mentioned that it is difficult to get there.
“And then inflation comes on top of that,” says Ismail.
“It’s really, really hard now.”
Road works related to the Kruunusillat tramway construction site have been carried out on Haakoninlahdenkatu since the spring of last year. According to the entrepreneur, the construction site has significantly hindered business, and especially the lack of parking spaces affects customer flows.
The flow of customers stopped as soon as the nearest parking spaces were removed and the immediate vicinity of the shop turned into a road construction site, says Ismail.
Syrians Damask, which offers barber services, has a total of five shops in Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa.
Although in the current economic situation people are tightening their purse strings and using many services less than before, Ismail says that the chain’s other stores are doing well. There are only problems in Kruunuvuorenranta, where the business stays open with income from other locations.
He doesn’t want to close the Kruunuvuorenranta business, because the costs incurred from opening the office are still not covered. Ismail has decided to stay in Kruunuvuorenranta as long as he can.
“I will fight until the end.”
The situation is not helped by the fact that the rent has risen twice in a couple of years. Ismail says that the rent has increased by several hundred euros during the year.
Entrepreneur Saad Ismail does not want to back down from Kruunuvuorenranta, even though the location is loss-making.
Ismail asked the city for a discount on the rent until the work in front of the store is over. There is a mention in the rental agreement that road works are not grounds for rent reductions.
However, in Ismail’s opinion, the city could support entrepreneurs in an exceptionally poor economic situation. The city has not agreed to this.
Now Ismail, according to his own words, no longer expects any help from the city.
Helsinki the head of the unit responsible for the city’s business premises Antti Halm does not comment on a private case, but tells about it on a general level.
“Basically, the city does not give rent reductions, the construction site is part of a changing city.”
According to Halmi, discounts can be granted in situations where the request is related to the rented property itself or its condition. For example, nearby construction sites are not grounds for rent reductions, according to him.
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