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Mellos restaurant owner Martin Fremeth insists the diner’s iconic neon sign, detached and carted off in the middle of the night, belongs to him.
“This sign is our property and is an asset of the business that we purchased several years ago,” Fremeth said in an email exchange Wednesday.
The sign was taken down late Monday night for safety reasons, he said. “Taking it down during the day would have required closing the sidewalk and part of the road. Both us and the sign company thought it would be best done at this time,” he said.
The colourful neon sign was a landmark in the ByWard Market during the more than 70 years that Mellos operated beneath it.
Martin Fremeth says the landmark neon sign is an asset of his restaurant business and not the property of the owner of the building where the restaurant operated until this week.
The Dalhousie Street restaurant closed Monday after the landlord, Domicile Commercial Management, decided not to renew its lease.
A spokesman for the property management firm couldn’t be reached Wednesday, but in an earlier statement, the firm said that the Mellos sign was removed without authorization and that a complaint had been lodged with the police.
Ottawa Police Const. Marc Soucy said Wednesday the incident remains under investigation.
Fremeth said he’s mystified by the landlord’s claim the Mellos sign belongs to the building owners.
“We have been solely responsible for maintaining and repairing the sign over the years and we have paid thousands of dollars to do so,” Fremeth said. “We also own the trademark rights to the name Mellos and the design of the sign, which is our logo.”
What’s more, Fremeth suggested that he would sue the property owners if they continued to display the sign. “The landlord can’t even use the sign. If they continued to display the sign in conjunction with whatever new business operates there, they would be infringing our trademark rights,” he said.
The sign is covered by a heritage designation that applies to the entire ByWard Market district, and any changes made to it — including its removal or relocation — are supposed to be the subject of a process governed by the Ontario Heritage Act. That process was not followed since the City of Ottawa did not receive or approve a request to alter the sign.
A Kickstarter campaign to raise $60,000 to relocate Mellos expired at about the same time that the sign was being taken down by a crane. The campaign received $46,000 in credit card pledges, but because it fell short of its target, none of those payments will be processed.
Fremeth said he has scouted out a nearby ByWard Market location and has held discussions with the landlord, but he still needs to find investors to help purchase new equipment before Mellos can be reopened.
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“This sign is our property and is an asset of the business that we purchased several years ago,” Fremeth said in an email exchange Wednesday.
The sign was taken down late Monday night for safety reasons, he said. “Taking it down during the day would have required closing the sidewalk and part of the road. Both us and the sign company thought it would be best done at this time,” he said.
The colourful neon sign was a landmark in the ByWard Market during the more than 70 years that Mellos operated beneath it.
Martin Fremeth says the landmark neon sign is an asset of his restaurant business and not the property of the owner of the building where the restaurant operated until this week.
The Dalhousie Street restaurant closed Monday after the landlord, Domicile Commercial Management, decided not to renew its lease.
A spokesman for the property management firm couldn’t be reached Wednesday, but in an earlier statement, the firm said that the Mellos sign was removed without authorization and that a complaint had been lodged with the police.
Ottawa Police Const. Marc Soucy said Wednesday the incident remains under investigation.
Fremeth said he’s mystified by the landlord’s claim the Mellos sign belongs to the building owners.
“We have been solely responsible for maintaining and repairing the sign over the years and we have paid thousands of dollars to do so,” Fremeth said. “We also own the trademark rights to the name Mellos and the design of the sign, which is our logo.”
What’s more, Fremeth suggested that he would sue the property owners if they continued to display the sign. “The landlord can’t even use the sign. If they continued to display the sign in conjunction with whatever new business operates there, they would be infringing our trademark rights,” he said.
The sign is covered by a heritage designation that applies to the entire ByWard Market district, and any changes made to it — including its removal or relocation — are supposed to be the subject of a process governed by the Ontario Heritage Act. That process was not followed since the City of Ottawa did not receive or approve a request to alter the sign.
A Kickstarter campaign to raise $60,000 to relocate Mellos expired at about the same time that the sign was being taken down by a crane. The campaign received $46,000 in credit card pledges, but because it fell short of its target, none of those payments will be processed.
Fremeth said he has scouted out a nearby ByWard Market location and has held discussions with the landlord, but he still needs to find investors to help purchase new equipment before Mellos can be reopened.
Related
- Mellos mystery solved: Reporter locates missing sign
- Fundraising drive falls short, Mellos in limbo after last supper
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