Peaches Coffee and Sylvia’s Kitchen have both invested significant time, money, and trust into becoming part of the Hamilton Retail Center community. In return, both businesses have been met with decisions from property ownership that have undermined prior understandings, disrupted operations, and created substantial financial harm.

Peaches Coffee has gone out of its way to be a cooperative tenant. We invested heavily in improving the shared courtyard, creating a welcoming community space with seating, a stage, custom metalwork, and areas for events and gathering. Those improvements were made after our plans and renderings were presented and reviewed with the landlord. We have maintained the space, hosted community events, and created an environment that brings customers not only to Peaches, but to the center as a whole. Now, after that investment has been made, ownership is seeking to dismantle and redesign the space, requiring Peaches to absorb the consequences of reversing an arrangement we relied upon.

Sylvia’s Kitchen, a beloved local taco truck that had become part of the identity of the center, has also recently been forced out of the parking lot. The loss of Sylvia’s is not just the loss of another food option—it is the loss of a small local business that customers intentionally came to support and that helped make this center feel unique.

What is most concerning is the erosion of trust this creates for every independent business that invests here. Small businesses make decisions, sign leases, spend money, hire employees, and build customer communities based on the belief that agreements and prior alignments will be honored. When those expectations can be reversed after substantial investment has already been made, the financial consequences are real—and the entire shopping center becomes less attractive to the very businesses and customers that give it life.

We are asking property ownership to stop removing the character that local businesses have built here, work in good faith with its tenants, honor prior commitments and investments, and preserve the community spaces and independent businesses that make Hamilton Retail Center worth visiting.

Please sign to support Peaches Coffee, Sylvia’s Kitchen, and the small businesses that have helped turn this center into a true community destination.