Quick Take
Java Junction’s River Street café will remain open after a local restaurant owner agreed to purchase the business, preserving staff and operations. The deal reverses a planned closure driven by steep rent increases, construction disruptions and declining sales.
Java Junction’s River Street location will stay open thanks to a last-minute purchase by a local restaurant owner.
“A last minute, and I mean last minute, deal was worked out to save our employees’ jobs,” Java Junction announced in a post on Instagram on Friday. “Staff stays the same, offering the same local products.”
At the eleventh hour, a Santa Cruz restaurateur contacted Java Junction owner Michael Spadafora and offered to buy the River Street café. Spadafora said the buyer owns several restaurants in Santa Cruz, but he declined to identify the owner without the owner’s permission.
“We were able to keep everyone’s jobs, and it stays a local business,” Spadafora said. The new owner will likely rename the café in the coming months. Ultimately, the coffee shop did not close for any length of time, aside from a few hours on Friday while the paperwork was finalized, he said.
In late April, Spadafora announced he would close the coffee shop in the Gateway Plaza in Santa Cruz after 28 years due to issues with landlord Balboa Retail Partners, which purchased the center in 2021. He cited a steep rent increase – to almost $9,000 a month – and prolonged disruptions due to a construction project next door that led to a loss of his outdoor seating for months.
Property manager JLL did not respond to Spadafora’s questions about when the outdoor area would reopen, or his concerns about a new lease rate of $56 per square foot, he said.
“I’ve always had great support from the community, but the center just isn’t going to work out for me any longer,” Spadafora told Lookout in April.
First opened in 1998, Spadafora had planned to close Java Junction’s River Street location on April 27. He owns two other locations in Santa Cruz – one on Seabright Avenue and the other in the Santa Cruz Harbor – which suffered through low sales in 2025 due to construction on the Murray Street Bridge.
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