Linda Loch didn’t find another space for her salon and plans to retire at the end of April. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Steve Plunkett
Another roadside landmark along State Road A1A is slated to soon disappear.
The Briny Hair Salon, the Briny Breezes Town Hall’s next-door neighbor, has lost its lease and must vacate by April 30.
Linda Loch, who has operated the beauty salon for 34 years, said she wasn’t told why, “just that they want to put somebody else in here where they can get four times the amount of rent.”
“There is no reason they have to kick me out,” she said.
Briny Breezes Inc., the co-op that manages the mobile home community, originally sent Loch a “Notice of Non-Renewal of Lease” on Oct. 31, demanding that she leave the premises by Dec. 31 with an option to request a 30-day extension.
Loch instead asked to stay until the end of April, and the co-op agreed.
Michael Gallacher, general manager of the co-op, noted that Briny Breezes Inc. is a for-profit corporation, and said Loch’s rent has been “very low” for “many years” and most of her customers live in neighboring Gulf Stream.
In September, Gallacher said, “Ms. Loch advised that she was meeting with a gentleman who wished to operate a separate business out of half the shop. We made clear that this was not acceptable.
“After reviewing the situation, we made a business decision to seek proposals from tenants who can provide meaningful benefits to Briny shareholders while paying market rent that contributes appropriately to sustaining the park’s expenses,” he said.
At first Loch’s customers were “really upset,” she said.
Customer and friend Diana Grainger, who owns the South Ocean Beach Shop in Delray Beach at A1A and Atlantic Avenue, had choice words: “deplorable” and “absolutely, positively unjust.”
Loch, too, was not happy.
“I think it’s terrible to do that to me. I actually think it could be age discrimination,” she said. “I am 78, but I’m capable still of working, And I want to work ’cause I think it’s healthy for me.”
Before the termination notice arrived, Loch spent $8,000 on new carpet and paint to make everything look fresh and new, she said. For the first half of November she scoured vacant commercial space for a place to relocate her business but wasn’t impressed by what she found.
“I wouldn’t take any of my customers there,” she said.
Rising rents have forced shops and restaurants for years to leave Delray Beach’s popular Atlantic Avenue. And the imminent departure of Loch’s salon brings to mind the 2023 closing on A1A of the Seaside Deli and Market at 4635 N. Ocean in a landlord-tenant dispute. It has since reopened under new ownership.
Loch’s rent this year was $1,612.98 a month for the salon at 4800 N. Ocean Blvd. By comparison, the town pays the co-op $1,792 per month for its side of the building, more than twice the space, at 4802 N. Ocean.
The Town Council signed a five-year extension of its lease starting in October 2024, allowing for rent increases each year of $50 per month.
When first grappling with the lease notice, Loch fretted about what her next steps would be.
“This has been my life,” she said. “For 34 years I’ve been here. And I have a wonderful clientele in the season.”
But after winning the April 30 lease extension, she said she has come to accept her circumstances and is ready to retire. “It’s OK,” Loch said. “I’m at peace with it now.”
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