(Austin Business Journal) — Royal Blue Grocery’s days on Congress Avenue are numbered.
The small Austin-based chain of bodegas will close its longtime location at 609 Congress Ave. on June 13 after failing to land a lease extension, said George Scariano, a co-owner of Royal Blue. Another tenant has already been found for the space off Sixth Street and Congress Avenue.
Royal Blue’s Congress Avenue location opened 15 years ago and was the company’s best-performing store for a while, but sales began falling about three years before the pandemic as public safety levels in the downtown area started to deteriorate, said Scariano. He estimated that it’s currently operating at 60% to 70% of its pre-pandemic peak revenue. The grocer had asked for rent relief in recent years due to the pressure on the business caused by the pandemic and public safety levels downtown — Scariano himself was a victim of an assault last year.
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