The manager of the Bocage Village Shopping Center is considering entering into a new lease with Dearman’s restaurant for the space the diner occupied for nine years until its lease was terminated in the wake of an overnight fire earlier this spring.
Shopping center manager Mitch Richardson says he is entertaining a proposal from Dearman’s owner David Van Gelder to move back into the 3,000-square-foot space, but that he is reviewing proposals from several other potential tenants as well.
“I have proposals from half a dozen different concepts, businesses that want to go in there,” Richardson says. “We’re also entertaining a proposal from the current tenant to go back in there.”
In late February, an overnight fire destroyed Dearman’s and damaged several other retail outlets in the shopping center. One week later, shopping center management terminated Dearman’s lease, angering longtime Dearman’s customers and setting off a wave of protest on social media. Richardson said at the time the lease was due to expire anyway in June and that Van Gelder had been informed in writing last fall that his lease was not going to be extended.
Van Gelder declined to comment when reached by phone today.
Richardson can’t say when he might make a decision as to whether to sign a new lease with Dearman’s or some other tenant, but he hopes to do so before repairing the damaged roof of the building.
“Once we get permitted we want to have a tenant in place ready to go with their build out so we can move forward at the same time,” he says.
There’s still no word on the cause of the fire. Forensics investigators are currently analyzing data from a camera that was located in Dearman’s. The fire began overnight on Feb. 29 in a storage area in the rear of the restaurant.
Until a determination can be made as to the cause of the blaze and who bears responsibility for the disaster, Richardson says he can’t put a price tag on the total amount of damage.
Since the fire, all tenants in the shopping center have reopened except four: Bella Bella, Travis Ltd., Classic Jewelers and The Optical Shoppe.
—Stephanie Riegel
