An Aurora hub for “salon-trepreneurs” unceremoniously shut down on Friday, March 14, leaving its tenants scrambling to find new locations for their businesses.
Located in the No Frill’s Plaza on Yonge Street, Salon City rented out suites to businesses in skin care, hair styling and other salon services. The suites varied in size and layout with rent starting at about $300 a week, according to Nicole Rosen, co-owner of Salon City, speaking previously with AuroraToday, and were intended for those starting their own businesses.
Helany Youkhanna, 25, was one of them. She had an opening event for Esthetics By Helany in October and signed a new one-year lease only last month. She said news of the closure came “out of the blue.”
Youkhanna said she received an email Friday afternoon informing her of the pending closure, telling tenants to clear their equipment out as soon as possible because the owners didn’t know when the landlords would be locking the doors.
“We weren't even given like, ‘You have 24 hours.’ It was all up in the air so we all just went in that same night pretty much and moved everything out cause we don't want to lose our stuff,” she said.
“It all came out of the blue, none of us were expecting it.”
Youkhana has been forced to pivot and is looking at new commercial spaces in Newmarket.
“Some of them are single moms, some of them, they're trying to raise a family. I mean, honestly, most of us were trying to keep our spirits up, like we were trying to cheer each other up,” she added. “All the girls, they're really sweet, but of course, it was still pretty difficult. It was a difficult thing to go through, especially given no notice.”
Another business owner Tatiana Jurj, 50, owner of Skin Essentials by Tania, was also frustrated by the lack of notice, noting she had invested in new equipment when moving into Salon City, which now sits in her basement as she tries to find a new location.
“It was a March break for another thing,” she said. “Thank God, ... I used to go on vacation in the March break, (but) I didn't. I was lucky.”
Salon City first opened in July 2023 and had grown to about 15 small businesses as of October.