The owner of two Sarnia businesses in a building originally targeted for demolition as part of the Bayside Centre redevelopment says he's had enough.
Tom Bunton plans to reopen TrinityLounge TempleBar and Ravenous Gastropub.
He closed both in January, sold business chattels, and laid off 24 full and part time employees, only to see a proposed buy-out never come to fruition.
"We're out buying other equipment, getting new tables, chairs, sinks, everything," says Bunton. "We're starting all over again. This is the Ravenous restaurant downstairs. We've taken the kitchen out now. It's no longer going to be a resturant. It's too much to put that back together again and we've lost all the business we had at Ravenous."
Bunton says he has had no income for seven months after the developer reneged three times on closing dates.
"We're totally frustrated, I mean I think if it was the cowboy days, there'd be tar and feathers out there," he says.
He adds the purchase of Taylor's Furniture has not closed either. Both properties were to be demolished for a piazza at the south end of the mall property.
Gord Laschinger and Wilsondale Assets Management General Manager and founder Italo Ferrari are embroiled in court proceedings over ownership of the Bayside Centre.
