Rent hike forcing beloved La Mesa boutique to relocate

LA MESA, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) -- A La Mesa mom and daughter team are looking for a new place to do business after they say a rent hike is forcing them out.

Dolores Bulle and her daughter, Deanne Ross, spent years working side by side running, Act 2, a boutique in La Mesa Village that resells designer clothes and accessories at an affordable price to customers.

“My mom started the store 42 years and we’ve been at this location over 35 years. I’ve worked in this store my whole life, I graduated from San Diego State and continued to make this my career,” Deanne Ross said.

Bulle says she never imagined her business would become so successful, but over the years she’s developed a very loyal customer base that walk or take the trolley to her store in search of quality clothes at good prices.

“We pride ourselves on having really inexpensive clothes that are high-end designer clothes that people can buy here and with the price of everything going up including the rent, we just can’t do it anymore. I can’t pay those high rent prices,” Ross said.  

Ross says a new owner bought the building and increased the rent $4,000 making it impossible for her to stay open. She hoped to negotiate a better rent adjustment, but says it wasn’t attainable.

“It’s just breaking my heart that we have to give up this location because La Mesa has been our family for so many years,” Bulle said. “We worked on every committee there was.”

Next door, Benjamin Fowers, owns his dream pet salon and now worries he could be next.

“He told me my lease would go up when my lease is up in May 2026,” said Fowers, owner of the Village Pet Salon. “Where it’s starting to land at is two times more than what we are paying now. It will probably put me out of business.”

Fowers says as a mom-and-pop business he has worked hard to create a connection with his customers who feel more like family.

“We have a tight community, Christmas cards, birthdays. If anyone passes away we know about it,” Fowers said.

Calls to the new owner and to the leasing company, Location Matters, were not returned.