Double Down, which sold skating gear and vintage clothing at 315 Valencia St., near 14th Street, closed its doors on May 31.
The reason, said Double Down’s founder, Diana Musa, was a rent increase that made renewing the lease financially unsustainable.
Musa said Double Down was intended to be a third space; a one-stop shop where customers could find skate supplies, local art, and vintage or second-hand clothing, and where local artists and bands could hold their first shows.
“It was like the living room,” said Musa. “It was a meeting place for the community.”
Many of the products sold at the shop, Musa said, came from connections she made with artists at craft shows and markets.
Musa’s decision to close Double Down’s storefront came after her three-year lease on the space came up for renewal, Musa said. Her landlord approached her with a new agreement, but the new monthly rent had gone up from $3,800 to $4,400, and that wasn’t all.
Musa said the landlord told her that she had also missed the yearly rent increases stipulated in her lease. Musa, who had set up automatic payment for every month, hadn’t been aware of those increases, and said her landlord had failed to inform her of them during the duration of the lease.
Musa’s landlord suggested she pay an additional $287 every month on top of the new rent to cover the $5,000 he claimed Musa owed him from the yearly increases.
“I didn’t understand how it was fair for him to do that,” said Musa.
Michael Baram, the storefront’s current broker, said that it is unusual for commercial landlords to remind tenants of rent increases if they are stipulated in rental agreements.
Musa decided to use her $5,000 deposit to pay off the outstanding balance, and moved out. She is now in discussions about a short-term lease for a storefront near the old shop.
Musa said Double Down will continue to do pop-ups throughout the city and publish Double Down Skate Zine, which is available at skate shops and online.
Musa, who is Palestinian, used her passion for skating and volunteered with SkatePal, a London-based nonprofit supporting the Palestinian skate scene, collecting skateboards, and teaching Palestinian children in the West Bank how to skate between 2019 and 2024.
Since then, she’s also made her own volunteering trips with Double Down staff to work with displaced Palestinians from Gaza in Egypt and displaced Palestinians and Syrians in Lebanon.
“The kids out there really wanted to skate, especially the girls. It really helped their parents to see another female Palestinian out there holding their hand and helping them,” said Musa.
“In Palestine, dreams are so limited, but with skateboarding, there’s so much to work toward,” Musa said.
She plans to continue this work.
To be fair, this doesn’t serve a market need. Should close down
wow, that is so crazy, I feel like the landlord not mentioning it once the entire time but still being able to collect three years worth of ‘increase payments’ is something that shouldn’t be allowed. I hope she finds a new and better space for her skate shop soon.