The owner of three closed Italian eateries in and next to the Grafton Center in Cambridge has spoken out about the treatment of the center’s owners. Alex Signorelli says he is on the verge of losing his home and going bankrupt after attempting to sell one of his three independent businesses, Signorelli’s Deli on Burleigh Street – a sale which, he claims, was thwarted by the owners of the center.
Pioneer Group purchased the center in August 2022. It plans to partially demolish the mall to create new life science labs, as well as a hotel and gym.
Alex said the owners’ decisions caused visitor numbers to drop and businesses to go into debt, which he said was a targeted tactic to remove the businesses from the centre. These decisions included terminating contracts and forcing businesses to close, leaving the remaining businesses to struggle with fewer visitors; not turning on the heating in the center, making it unattractive to customers; and not promoting downtown businesses on social media.
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Alex said: “I kept telling them, ‘I’m struggling to make ends meet. I can’t pay the rent.”
“They said, ‘Don’t worry about the rent.’ Just do what you can to revive the company.” They kept telling me to do my best with La Piazza. So I said, look, I’ll reinvest – I’ll reinvest in the staff, I’ll reinvest in the menu.
“I wish they had told me from the start – don’t bother. In a few years that place won’t exist anymore, so don’t worry. Instead, they got everyone into debt by not pressuring them, and suddenly started demanding the money.
“They put our backs all against the wall and then this new deal came out: I’ll tell you what, we’ll forgive your back debt if you agree to end your ten-year lease and sign a rolling lease so we terminate your contract at any time.”
Alex compared these deals to “deals with the devil”. Two of his businesses, Il Mercato and La Piazza, closed. However, he continued to pay business rates for La Piazza as he still had years left on his lease.
This contributed to his financial problems and left him unable to run Signorelli’s Deli in Burleigh Street. He found a buyer for the deli and asked Pioneer Group if they would approve the sale, which had to be in writing.
CambridgeshireLive has seen a text message to Alex from John O’Shea, center manager at the Grafton Centre, suggesting “progress is being made” towards authorisation. Alex planned to sell Signorelli’s Deli and move to another location in Cambridge.
He continued: “I approached them and said the money I get from the sale of the deli will pay off the debt, a large part of it. Then I go to my new store and continue with my brand, and everyone wins.
“I said, ‘I’m about to take out a personal guarantee loan, putting my house on the line. Are you sure I can sell it?’
“They said, ‘Yes, of course we’ll let you sell it.’ I spoke to them face-to-face three times.”
Alex took out the loan, but The Pioneer Group never authorized the sale, leaving Alex on the brink of losing his home and going bankrupt, he claimed. Signorelli’s Deli closed its doors for the final time in May.
Discussing how the centre’s owners “caused footfall to decline”, Alex also described how they removed the park and ride stop at the center and did not advertise Grafton Center businesses involved in the Cambridge Restaurant Week – but instead promoted restaurants on the other side. of the city.
He also said that independent business owners wrote letters to the center’s owners asking them to communicate to the public that the Grafton was still open despite so many of the businesses being closed, but they failed to do so .
The last time a Grafton Center store was mentioned in a post on the centre’s Facebook page was in June 2023.
Alex described how many business owners are afraid to speak out because they are making deals with the owners of the center. He said he tried to form a trade association for Grafton Center businesses but was called into a meeting when the owners heard about it.
He claims he was told it would not be in his personal or business interests to be part of such a group as the owners would then be unable to guarantee him a future in the Grafton. Another trader in the center, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “They are just strangling us. They’re drowning us.
“They let the water rise and rise without customers, expecting or hoping or knowing that we will eventually close due to the lack of visitors. They just wiped their hands of us.
“We have invested a lot of money in this company. I spent five years of my life in this mall.
‘My biggest crime is promoting the Grafton as much as possible – trying to say to people, ‘It’s not as bad as you think.’ I can’t defend it anymore.
“I don’t know how long we can last. It’s been years and years since I went home and said to my wife – and then girlfriend – I promise you that next year will be better, I promise you we will get there.
“It’s been years and years of just paying the bills, as I’m still trying to make up for lost attendance, and dedicate my life to something I truly believed in, knowing I had a 10-year lease and that I hoped to renew it. I really believed in it.”
A spokesperson for Pioneer Group said: “We are extremely sympathetic to Mr Signorelli’s situation. The Grafton Center was already 40 percent vacant when we bought it, and is now 60 percent vacant.
“High street traders have also struggled in the current economic climate and with changes in the way people shop. As owners of the Grafton Center we have sought to support struggling local businesses by allowing them to continue trading with concessions on their leases. charged for some time.
“However, the number of shoppers visiting the Grafton Center has been falling sharply for years, with footfall currently down by around 25 per cent on pre-pandemic levels. These same economic forces have also impacted local businesses in and around the Grafton.
“That is why we are financing a large-scale redevelopment of the center and completely redesigning its operation, which will in turn revitalize the local economy.”