{"id":631656,"date":"2026-04-27T10:16:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T10:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/631656\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T10:16:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T10:16:26","slug":"rockland-centre-starbucks-stays-closed-despite-court-order-to-reopen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/631656\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockland Centre Starbucks stays closed despite court order to reopen"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Starbucks in Rockland Centre that closed before the end of its lease is defying a Quebec court order requiring the coffee shop to stay open.<\/p>\n

The company that owns Rockland Centre, Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust, took Starbucks to Quebec Superior Court after noticing in early April that the store was closed during the Town of Mount Royal mall\u2019s opening hours \u2014 a violation of the coffee shop\u2019s lease, which requires it to continue operating until January 2028.<\/p>\n

The closure drew concern from mall management after they discovered the Starbucks location, which they believed would attract people to the mall, was instead encouraging customers to go elsewhere, with a sign posted outside the shuttered store inviting customers to visit \u201ca nearby Starbucks,\u201d according to an April 16 court ruling.<\/p>\n

The ruling by Justice Mathieu Pich\u00e9-Messier ordered the coffee shop to stay open for 10 days ahead of further legal proceedings, when Cominar will ask for a court order that would force the coffee shop to remain open until the end of its lease.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his decision, Pich\u00e9-Messier found that the closure could cause \u201cirreparable harm\u201d to the shopping centre, impacting foot traffic, neighbouring businesses, and clientele. He accepted Cominar\u2019s arguments that the closure poses a greater disadvantage to the mall than what Starbucks would face if forced to stay open, given the company is projected to generate revenues exceeding US$27.5 billion in North America by the end of its fiscal 2025 year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all the more true given that Starbucks is a highly reputable retailer and a major global player in the coffee trade,\u201d the decision states, noting that Starbucks is an \u201canchor tenant\u201d for the mall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more vacant premises there are, the greater the impact,\u201d\u00a0 Pich\u00e9-Messier added.<\/p>\n

But despite the ruling, on Thursday evening \u2014 one week after the judge ordered the store to reopen \u2014the Rockland Centre Starbucks was shuttered during the mall\u2019s opening hours. Its store entrance was blocked off by a gate, with chairs stacked upside down on tables. When dialling the phone number associated with the Rockland Starbucks branch, a \u201cnot in service\u201d message plays.<\/p>\n

Asked about the Thursday closure, Starbucks representatives declined to comment \u201cdue to pending litigation,\u201d spokesperson Shannon Zednicek wrote in an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The closure comes as the coffee giant struggles across Canada<\/a>, shuttering hundreds of its North America locations last year. According to reporting from Bloomberg, the company is also struggling to convince employees at its Seattle headquarters to take a five per cent pay cut and move to its new $100 million Nashville hub, on the promise of a reduced cost of living.<\/p>\n

\"ShutteredThe shuttered Starbucks inside Rockland Centre in Montreal on Friday, April 24, 2026. Evan Buhler \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n

In the April 16 ruling regarding the Rockland Centre location, a broker working for Starbucks told Cominar that the coffee company wanted to terminate its lease early, on March 31, 2026. But Cominar did not accept the request.<\/p>\n

Cominar then sent a lawyer\u2019s letter to Starbucks, asking them to reopen and threatening legal action if they did not.<\/p>\n

Upon receiving the demand letter, Starbucks\u2019s representative \u201cmerely replied tersely by email that he would take care of it and forward it to the parent company,\u201d the ruling reads.<\/p>\n

According to the ruling, Starbucks was not represented at a recent court hearing and has not submitted any arguments or pleadings in its defence.<\/p>\n

As a result, Pich\u00e9-Messier only granted Cominar a 10-day order, instead of the 45-day order they had requested, to give Starbucks another chance to respond.<\/p>\n

Cominar is also seeking a more permanent court order that would be in place until January 2028.<\/p>\n

Attorneys representing Cominar also declined to comment on the ruling.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Profile<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tLeora Schertzer is a reporter at the Montreal Gazette who thrives on the chase. Whether it\u2019s producing a documentary about sewage or investigating a Nazi gold scandal, it\u2019s the novelty and adrenaline that keep her in this challenging industry. Send her tips at lschertzer@postmedia.com.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Starbucks in Rockland Centre that closed before the end of its lease is defying a Quebec court…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-631656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}