Happy Kids Child Care, located in the area of Church Street North and Delaney Drive, has been instructed to vacate the building by Aug. 31 after its lease expired and was not renewed by the landlord.
CP24.com spoke with several parents of children enrolled at the daycare, and many are disappointed at how short notice was given of the closing.
Chantelle Browne and her partner Jhsi Lewis recently took their son to Happy Kids after waiting to find places at other nurseries. They say the center has been a “fantastic” place for their child for the past three months.
Brown says her child lights up when he sees the front of the building. It’s her son’s first daycare, so she and her partner are devastated it’s closing at the end of the month.
“(We’re) pretty shocked,” Brown said. “The last three months have been so easy, knowing that our son is going there, that he’s in good hands. And the staff is always so pleasant. You’re like sure your child is going to be there and that ‘I’ll get back to you. if something happens.”
“We don’t want to start over.”
But, alas, it looks like it will have to.
“That really caught us off guard. So to let it go and find somewhere else and move our son there in less than two weeks, it’s impossible,” Browne said.
Lewis adds that it’s much harder to find a new provider right before September, when schools start. They say they’ve started asking at other places, but many are already full and only have slots available through 2023.
“To have this news hit us in two weeks is devastating. Because if push comes to shove and one of us has to stay home, we have to take turns staying at home to take care of our son. So what happens? If we don’t work, we don’t get paid,” said Lewis, who works as an electrician at a hospital.
Browne, who is a social worker, adds that they have no family and friends nearby who can help them.
“We may have to make some really tough decisions about whether we can both work or not,” he said. “It’s what we need to understand.”
Browne and Lewis are just one of more than 100 families served by Happy Kids who must now look for a new childcare provider.
Ajax Nursery opened in November 2017 and currently has a staff of 30.
Julie Gilchrist, director of Happy Kids, says she initially signed a five-year lease in 2017 with the option to renew for two more five-year terms. He told CP24.com on Friday that he tried to get a new lease before the end of July, but was unsuccessful.
The owner, however, disagreed with Gilchrist’s account of the sequence of events in a statement.
“They want the rent to go from $19,000 to $24,000. That’s ideally what they want in their tenure. I know I can never go that high,” said Gilchrist, who originally paid a monthly rent of $14,650. “It just doesn’t work unless you raise your fees to $400 or $500 a week.”
Concerned about the pending expiration in July, Gilchrist says she asked her landlord, Elm Capital Ajax Inc., in June if she could get a new lease that would see her rent rise to $18,000. She claims that in addition to the rent increase, her landlord first wanted her to pay off the $40,000 debt she incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic in full before she could get a new lease.
“I said, so I have to pay you the $40,000 before I sign my contract? He said, ‘You know what, we’ll just do a month-to-month,'” Gilchrist recalled.
“So I don’t think anything is strange because I pay my rent every month.”
Despite the uncertainty, Gilchrist continued to pay rent, including in August, which jumped to $19,000.
That’s why Gilchrist was shocked when she received an email from her landlord earlier this month ordering her to vacate the property by Aug. 31.
“I don’t know if they found someone who could pay that much. But he was looking for someone who could pay him up to $24,000 over the five-year term,” Gilchrist said, adding that the email “came out of left field,” and that she felt blindsided and intimidated by her owner.
She tried to renegotiate with them to keep the daycare’s doors open and presented them with a payment plan, but she says they won’t budge.
“I’m devastated about it. I’ve literally put every bit of blood, sweat and tears into this place,” Gilchrist said.
She says she then asked her landlord if they could let her stay for 60 to 90 days to give the families more time to find another provider.
“People are already planning their work schedules in September,” Gilchrist said. “It will be impossible for people to find alternatives in this short period of time.”
But the owner refused, he says.
So last Friday, Gilchrist finally informed the families of the situation.
“I let them know the circumstances, I let them know everything. I just understood that I was going to be completely 110 percent transparent. So people could just understand that I wasn’t doing it to be malicious,” Gilchrist said.
“I didn’t do it to be mean. And I feel terrible. I feel terrible about it.”
Gilchrist says Happy Kids was only recently back to full capacity and for the first time since the pandemic hit, things seem to be back to normal at the daycare.
“I went through everything during COVID. And I didn’t know if I could get this place back. I didn’t know if I could keep it afloat. But I did.” he said.
“(I was just getting) really excited about things again and then this happened.”
In a statement to CP24.com, the property manager for Elm Ajax Plaza Inc. noted that the lease’s expiration date was clearly defined in the contract and said Gilchrist had been contacted about a possible renewal as early as March 2022.
“Nothing ever materialized. For added clarity, (the landlord) also advised Happy Kids that they would be looking for a new tenant, which they did,” the statement said.
“On the issue of extra time, shortly before the closing date, Happy Kids asked to be allowed to stay for an extra month, which is August 2022, and (the owner) agreed. And while a reminder that vacant possession is required when the term ends on August 31 may have been sent as early as last week, any notion that this was a surprise to the tenant is simply not true.”
The property manager added that a new daycare center will take over the space.
Gilchrist disputes the landlord’s statement and says she plans to take them to court.
Like other parents, Kristina Mojsoski was surprised by the announcement. Her two-year-old daughter is supposed to start at Happy Kids in September.
“I think I’ll be more concerned as the shock wears off. Because daycare and child care are necessary. And this is so short for us,” Moisoski said.
Her four-year-old son has been attending nursery since he was 12 months old and will finish this month as he starts nursery in September. Mojsoski says she loves Happy Kids and trusts the staff, which is why she enrolled her daughter.
“So the fact that I might have to look for something new for my daughter is really concerning,” Moisoski said.
She plans to return to work as a teacher next month, but says she’s not sure if that’s still possible without childcare.
Moisoski texted another daycare center in the area, but learned there was a waiting list.
“I don’t know what we should do. I have to get back to work,” he said. “There is no one watching my daughter. I have to figure it out first. I just can’t find a daycare, just find one, you have to love it.”
“I really hope the center did everything they could. I think they did,” Mojsoski added. “I have to trust that they did.”
Meanwhile, parents have rallied to raise awareness of the daycare’s plight, hoping to stop its doors from closing.
Among them is Kate Dahlin, whose three-year-old daughter attends the center. She says she was surprised to learn of the impending closure.
“It’s not just this horrible news, but the lack of awareness and compassion for the families who rely on daycare while we try to go to work,” Dahlin said. “It’s been quite an upheaval the last couple of years. It’s another hurdle.”
She says parents are sharing the news on social media and contacting local officials to bring attention to what’s going on with the daycare.
“The owner feels she’s being bullied. And she’s been very transparent with us with her communications with the owner. And it really sounds like she’s right. And the way the owner is doing this, it’s just not fair.” Dahlin said.
The support she received from parents was overwhelming for the daycare director. Gilchrist says it’s a testament to how her daycare has become an important part of many children’s lives.
“I created this space because I wanted it to be one of those places where people want to bring their kids. I wanted it to be clean. I wanted it to be light and airy. And I’ve achieved that with that,” he said. .
When asked what she plans to do next, Gilchrist said, “I don’t know. I’m hoping for a miracle.”
