Keep Café Zamora in the Neighborhood

***By Donating to this campaign you knowledge that you are doing it for free will and no offer, raffle, product or exchange of ownership has been offered to you by me, or any of my coworkers ***

Hi Everyone!

My name is Héctor, owner and founder of Café Zamora.

As many know Café Zamora has been in the Creston Kenilworth neighborhood for the last 3 years. It has been a journey full of emotions and challenges, but each challenge has been an opportunity to grow.

We went through the Pandemic, and even at the hardest times, we still made it. However, this time I had to close the Gladstone Street store because I wasn't able to come to an agreement with the landlord of the building Café Zamora has been during the last three years. I asked for a more reasonable price because I was too excited when I first met the landlord of the building and said yes to everything he asked me to. However, now, understanding the numbers of our business, the foot traffic of the neighborhood and the location of the building I asked for a better rate to keep us in business for a longer-term. Nonetheless, that was not possible.

2022 has been a very challenging year. I originally was planning on moving back to Guatemala to focus on the projects we have planned for our community there, and keep working on the Café with my coworker to keep selling the coffee beans we farm in Guatemala, and sell them here in the States.

However, the fears of a recession, market instability, and the unprovoked Russian invasion to Ukraine, changed everything. My savings started drying up, I got an opportunity to open a second location in downtown Portland, and as a way to try to bring more sales to the Café and secure the continuity of the business in case I wasn't able to come to an agreement with the Landlord of the original Café Zamora location, I took it.

May, June and July didn't go my way at all, those were very difficult months as sales were just helping to break even at the Creston Kenilworth and the downtown shop performed poorly.

I kept trying to find ways to keep things running, and was in search of a solution to keep the shop in Gladstone Street to stay open for years to come, but I wasn't successful.

Having received a "no" from the landlord to the terms I was proposing, and not finding a place nearby to keep the Café running, I started planning on having to accept the fact that I had to permanently close the shop. But in August 23rd, the landlord of the Gladstone Street emailed me proposing to do a New month to month lease under the terms I had offered him. I was excited again, frustrated for the long months of search without answers, but excited to rearrange things for the continuity of the business in S.E.

Since things in downtown Portland were not going well, I started door dashing to make extra money to cover the expenses I needed to and have a new plan to bring back the hope to the dream I felt like loosing.

Once September came, I asked the landlord for the lease agreement to sign and secure the new terms and work with the new plan. I was told to give him some days, and after several days, on September 7th I got an email saying I had to leave by the end of the month and no new lease agreement was happening.

Upset and angry for the short notice I decided that I was not going to fight back and simply leave to end the relationship with that landlord once and for all.

As I was getting ready to leave on September 30th, I was able to get a new opportunity on a nearby location! The space is three blocks away from the previous location and the terms are more favorable. Even though I was planning on waiting for a couple of months to save up money from my second/third job, I decided to go for it and get every penny I could to get the café back to the neighborhood.

I am excited for the new location, but being a new building there is work that needs to be done to make it suitable for a coffee shop. The new landlord has offered their help to do a portion of it, and I will work my way to do the other.

For this reason, I would like to ask you for your help to keep Zamora in the neighborhood, and bring it back faster.

I appreciate everyone's support and help to bring back the café. I will keep working at the Downtown shop in the morning and deliveries in the afternoon. You will see me either delivering coffee, food or groceries because I won't stop fighting to keep my business open.

Thank you so much from the bottom of my hearth.

***By Donating to this campaign you knowledge that you are doing it for free will and no offer, raffle, product or exchange of ownership has been offered to you by me, or any of my coworkers ***