After 24 years, Cara Glass & Sash will be leaving its location at 651 Divisadero St. The building has been sold and, according to owner Elizabeth Molony, she was told by the new owners Prado Group that she will not be able to renew the lease when it expires on May 31st. Until now, Molony was under a 20-year lease agreement that she had been able to extend for the past few years.
What’s unique about this otherwise all-too-familiar scenario is the fact Malony had no idea that the building had been sold to begin with. According to her, about three months ago, a representative from Prado Group informed her that she would now be paying rent to them, since they had recently purchased the building.
To this day, Molony hasn’t been able to get in touch with her former landlord. It was sometime between then and now that she was also denied the opportunity to renew her current lease when it expires this spring.
“They simply said ‘no’, and ‘we want the building, and we want to put in a restaurant’,” Malony explained. When we asked whether or not she wished to pursue a new agreement for more money, she replied, “I wasn’t interested in dealing with them anymore because they weren’t the most polite people I’ve met.”
Molony tells us that she is looking for a new location in the city, and that although she would like to stay in the neighborhood, she could no longer afford to do so even if something opened up.
“We will miss the location and our neighbors and everyone we’ve gotten to know over 24 years. I’ll be very sad about it, but life goes on, doesn’t it?”
Originally from Ireland, Molony and her husband Paul McGeown moved to San Francisco a little over 30 years ago. McGeown was a carpenter by trade, and the two, along with Molony’s cousin, started Cara Glass & Sash in a storefront on 18th and Sanchez.
San Francisco’s numerous Victorians presented a need for wooden sash windows, and the enterprising family seized the opportunity. To those who aren't familiar with the terminology, a window "sash" is the interior wooden frame holding together the pieces of glass. To this day city planning guidelines require all street facing windows on Victorian homes to be wood sash.
Curious, we asked Molony how many window sashes her company has built over the past 30 years. After some thought, she approximated the number to be around 36,000.
Despite the nature of her departure, Molony expressed a certain level of understanding for the group that bought the building. “I’m not blaming them,” she said. “They can get at least twice as much if not more for the same place.”
Cara Glass & Sash will continue to operate out of its Divisadero location through the end of May. We’ll keep you posted when we learn of their new location, as well as the effect Prado Group’s recent purchase may have on other businesses in the building, including Bar Crudo and Your Scents Trading, which we profiled back in July.
