Tempe Town Lake

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Coffee Plantation in downtown Tempe to close Saturday

by Dianna M. Náñez - May. 29, 2009 03:50 PM

The Arizona Republic

Through tears, a Tempe Coffee Plantation worker said the Mill Avenue store was closing Saturday.

The shocked worker said she had learned of the closure Friday morning.

Store Manager Cody Peck said the longtime coffee shop that has served generations of downtown Tempe regulars would serve its last cup of coffee tomorrow.

The store is open today until 9 p.m. and shuts its doors permanently tomorrow at the same time.

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Coffee Plantation on Mill Avenue closes

by Dianna M. Náñez - May. 30, 2009 08:49 PM

The Arizona Republic

Coffee Plantation, one of the Valley's first coffeehouses and a Mill Avenue landmark, closed Saturday amid tears and customers sharing stories of first dates, long study sessions and other memories made at the shop.

Jenny Kellerman, 34, marked the coffee shop's final day with friends who also wanted to say goodbye to a place they had been coming to since their teens.

She noted the coffee house's significance to one of Arizona's most well-known downtowns. "I think if you had to define Mill Avenue in two words it was: Coffee Plantation," she said. "It was the cornerstone of Mill. Not anymore."

Joe Johnston, a Gilbert-based entrepreneur, founded Coffee Plantation in 1989 at the corner of Sixth Street and Mill when there were about 50 Starbucks nationwide. The coffee brewer soon became a draw for families, Valley teens too young for bars but eager to be a part of Mill's campus action, and college kids studying or recovering from a late night.

It was 1996 before Arizona would get its first Starbucks. About a year later, one opened a block from the Tempe Coffee Plantation.

The competitor sliced into Coffee Plantation's sales, but what helped keep the shop alive were the regulars and the store's emphasis on creating a place where people could hang out all day if they wanted.

Through the years, the store survived multiple owners and several economic downturns, including the recent recession.

Owner Michelle Roe said she recently submitted city plans to expand the coffee shop, hoping to add a marketplace that served gelatos, fresh bread and other baked goods.

"We were so excited. I had an investor," Roe, 37, said. "But I got a call last week that the landlord wasn't going to renew our lease. They said they had another renter."

DMB Associates officials, landowners of the complex that houses Coffee Plantation, did not immediately return a call for comment. Nancy Hormann, president of Downtown Tempe Corporation, which manages the downtown area, confirmed Friday that two restaurants were interested in renting the space.

Coffee Plantation regular Veronica Harner, 23, an Arizona State University student, visited the coffee shop so often that the manager let her keep a Scrabble game there.

"This was one of the few locally-owned places still on Mill," Harner said. "It's just so sad."

Roe said the leaser would have let her stay longer but she decided that it would be unwise to invest in a closing store with four remaining Coffee Plantations to support in the Valley. She hopes to return to Mill but said that will depend on finding affordable rent.

Roe also had Coffee Plantation memories.

"It's where I had my first espresso," she said, laughing. "I was in high school. I thought I was so cool."

Roe expressed appreciation to longtime customers.

"I want to thank everybody for keeping us here so many years," she said.

People have trailed in to say goodbye since Thursday, when manager Cody Peck hung a closing sign thanking customers.

"The hardest thing has been hearing people's memories," he said. "We had a guy . . . who said he brought his wife here for their first date and a group of ASU teachers talking about when they used to come here as students."

Kathy Parra, 48, and her daughter Ariana, 18, were making their weekly trip to Mill Saturday. Parra broke down when she learned it would be her last Coffee Plantation visit.

"I'm sorry I'm crying," Parra said. "I was pregnant with my 18-year-old when we started coming here. What's happened to Mill is so sad. People aren't preserving history here like they do in other downtowns, like San Diego."