The owners of a new business planning to locate in downtown Langley City are dealing with an unforeseen problem before opening – asbestos.
Last September, the Pink Avo Café was the winner of the Start It Up Langley contest. Entrepreneurs Chaylene Lidell and Shaughnessy Otsuji took the most votes in the Downtown Langley Business Association (DLBA) contest.
Their package included more than $130,000 in prizes to help launch the business, a vegan-friendly café to be located on the one-way section of Fraser Highway.
That includes six months free rent, marketing support, legal and accounting fees, business coaching, and a grand opening reception.
However, renovations on the site slowed down over the winter. The original plan was to have the café open as early ast the late fall last year.
“The hold up was that when they tried to start the renovations, they found asbestos,” said Teri James, executive director of the DLBA.
Asbestos left in the walls is not harmful.
“The second you disturb it, it turns into a rather significant deal,” James noted.
The building owner handled the remediation work, James said, and those have been underway in March and are expected to wrap up by the start of April.
After that, the regular renovations can start up.
A sign has already been ordered for the new café, and permits and licensing and other background paperwork necessary is already done, James said.
Lidell and Otsuji plan to open the project by this summer.
“I have seen a copy of the top-secret plan for inside, and it is breathtaking,” James said.
In the meantime, she’s been getting hundreds of calls and requests from people in the community to find out what’s happening and when the café will open, James said.
Pink Avo will offer healthy, vegetarian and vegan-friendly food as well as ‘Instagram worthy’ pink lattes in a fun and vibrant atmosphere.
READ MORE: New vegan-friendly café funded through Start It Up Langley contest