All About Keys to close door on Westwood after rent hike
All About Keys, a locksmith store that has been in Westwood for 27 years, closed due to increasing rent prices. (Mackenzie Posse/Assistant Photo Editor)
By Janae Yip
June 20, 2016 3:57 p.m.
Empty shelves once filled with colorful trinkets and Bruin-decorated accessories line the white walls of a Westwood key shop. Keys of all different sizes sit dormant on the opposite wall, waiting to be transported to their next owner.
All About Keys, a family-owned locksmith store on Gayley Avenue that has been in Westwood for 27 years, closed Saturday due to increasing rent prices.
“It’s the end of an era, and it breaks my heart,” said owner Norma Jean Mijangos.
Mijangos said her landlord increased the monthly rent by $700 when she asked to renew her five-year lease, which will end in July. The $700 will cover a common area maintenance insurance cost, which includes property tax, electricity, trash and other expenses shared by all Westwood tenants.
The maintenance cost is evenly split between the businesses Mijangos’ landlord owns and is set to increase further over the years in the proposed contract, she said.
Mijangos said she thinks the CAM cost is unfair for small businesses like All About Keys because a key store does not use the same amount of water or electricity as restaurants and other businesses.
She said she tried to negotiate with her landlord to reduce the CAM estimate, but he was unreceptive to her offers. The landlord will also start converting all contracts to triple net leases, NNN, which adds an additional rent to the base rent and will hold tenants responsible for property taxes, insurance and maintenance, she said.
Cal Select Properties, which manages the building All About Keys occupied, declined to comment.
Mijangos initially tried to sell her store for $120,000, but dropped the price to $40,000 because she said she thinks potential buyers are deterred by the lack of parking spaces and large number of homeless people in the Village.
She said she thinks All About Keys is just one of many stores being pushed out of the Village by high rent prices. She said Buffalo Exchange, Chili’s and Acapulco Mexican Restaurant among others have closed.
“There’s definitely a problem if huge chains like Chili’s can’t afford to stay here and so many storefronts are vacant,” Mijangos said.
The manager of Campus Shoe Repair, which has been in Westwood for 50 to 60 years, said the store has tried to combat high rent prices by increasing business and taking money away from profit.
“Businesses don’t want to come into Westwood anymore because the rent prices are too high,” the manager said. “A few people own all the property in Westwood, and they can do anything they want because there’s no one to stop them.”
Linda Abell, co-owner of Sarah Leonard Fine Jewelers, said she thinks many storefronts stay empty because Westwood’s landlords are unwilling to work together and do not care about the Village’s appearance.
She added Sarah Leonard Fine Jewelers has never had problems with high rent prices and has been able to establish a strong presence for many years because of loyal customers and long rent contracts.
Mijangos said she thinks landlords are looking to replace mom-and-pop shops with high-end businesses, which she thinks will eventually cause Westwood to lose its main customer base in students.
Some students said they think most businesses in Westwood Village are upscale stores instead of the local, inexpensive shops that may be more common in other college towns.
Melissa Papuc, a first-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student, said she thinks Westwood stores are more expensive than ones in other cities.
“It dampens my college experience because I really need to think carefully about what I eat or how often to watch a movie at the theaters because things are just so expensive here,” Papuc said.
Jordan Yen, a first-year computer science student, said he thinks Westwood will look more upscale if there are fewer mom-and-pop stores.
“(The disappearance of small shops) is unfortunate but inevitable, and students shouldn’t mind higher prices as long as the new, high-end businesses market in a way (that is) appealing to students,” Yen said.
He added he thinks All About Keys is not a loss to students because Hill residents use key cards and shops like Home Depot can offer the same services to students living in apartments.
Mijangos still made new keys in minutes for customers as they wandered around the store, asking for reduced prices on the few items left.
“I never expected this to happen, but I guess it’s impossible for us mom-and-pop shops to fight with politics and money,” Mijangos said. “Everybody wants to get richer while we’re struggling to survive.”
