ASTORIA, Ore. — Moving day is coming sooner than expected for the North Coast Food Web.
In a social media post Friday, the Astoria nonprofit announced that its lease on space in a building in downtown Astoria is being terminated early. The lease was set to expire on Sept. 20. Now, it will end on July 4.
According to Jesse Jones, the nonprofit’s new executive director, no reason was given for the lease termination.
Jones told KMUN that the Food Web will continue to provide its usual services and programs while it searches for a new location that can accommodate a commercial kitchen.
The nonprofit’s work is focused on developing resilient and equitable food systems. It operates a year-round online farmers market and provides kitchen and storage rentals for small producers across the region.
“The organization itself has moved [before] already, which isn’t easy,” Jones said. “But it shows our resilience as an organization that we can adapt to change.”
In its post on Friday, the Food Web put out a plea to the community for information on available spaces or connections that could help secure a new location.
A Seaside-based group, TM Development LLC, purchased the Astoria Food Hub building where the Food Web operates last year. The building on Marine Drive had housed Buoy Beer Co., which ceased operations there when its lease expired at the end of last year.
TM Development includes Seaside business and property owners Tom and Mark Utti and attorney Jeremy Rust. In 2021, the group purchased the former Seaside High School property for $3.2 million. TM Development and the Uttis, separately, own other commercial and residential properties in Seaside.
The company is associated with TD&M Enterprises/Damarkom Inc, the parent company for Sisu Brewing Co. in Seaside. The brewery plans to use the Astoria Food Hub building — and the 28,000 total square feet the purchase brings — to expand brewery operations into Astoria.
KMUN reached out to representatives with TM Development and TD&M Enterprises, but did not receive a response by deadline.
Entrepreneurs like Ivan Sultan say they rely on the resources the North Coast Food Web has developed at the Food Hub building.
Sultan, who runs a snack company called Columbia Bar, has worked out of other commercial kitchens on Oregon’s North Coast, but said the kitchen the Food Web provided is unique. It is one of the only places he knows about where he can book time as needed and store ingredients and materials. It was a space where he felt he could continue to grow and evolve his business.
Now, with moving day arriving sooner than expected for the Food Web, he isn’t sure how to pivot or what to do if there is a significant gap between the end of the Food Web’s lease and the opening of a new location.
“This is my work,” Sultan said. “I mean, this is what I’m doing for a living right now. I’m growing a company. If I had to temporarily pause operations, I might as well just shut down.”
Jones told KMUN that the goal is to move into a new location without any significant disruption in services.