'I've anguished over it': Clam Diggers restaurant uprooting to Cardigan

The ownerof the Georgetown, P.E.I, restaurant Clam Diggers is in the process of uprooting the business and moving it to Cardigan.

Arlene Smith has been negotiating for nearly a year with the Georgetown and Area Development Corporation, which owns the property where her business is located.

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Smith said she would have liked to keep Clam Diggers in the town, but said the GADC'sasking price was too high.

Smith said she had the property professionally appraised, and was willing to go 12.5 per centover that appraised price but couldn't get the GADC to agree.

"I feel now that anything over that appraised price is basically asking me to buy back my own business," she said.

We continued to build up our customer base we're hoping that they will follow us to Cardigan.Arlene Smith

"In order to keep our business from being shut down and rendered worthless, we've decided to move the business to Cardigan."

KennyAitken, chair of theGADC, saidthe propertyis being sold because thecorporationdoesn't "want to be landlords anymore"and that it'sinterested inmovingon toother projects in the area.

He said the GADCcapped the price high because of where he thinks the town is going economically.

"We believe Georgetown is growing and we believe we asked a fair value for the property," he said.

"If Arlene is moving to Cardigan, we look at good news for Cardigan and we'll continue on in Georgetown and we'll get someone to purchase the building."

'This year we broke even'

Smith said Clam Diggers wasn't making money for the first sixor sevenyears and has only recently been breaking even with the tourism surge, feeding about 31,000 people this summer compared to 24,000 last year.

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"We have been seeing quite a jump in the last three years, every year has gone up considerably this year we broke even with all of the investments that we have put in," she said.

Although, she added, now that Clam Diggers is breaking even and reaping the benefits of a record tourism years, they're frustrated by having to uproot and head elsewhere.

"It was a very very very very difficult decision," Smith said. "I've anguished over it, well, since last year really."

Offer on Cardigan location

Smith said they've madean undisclosed offer at the closed Cape Light Restaurantin Cardigan.

"We got through the summer and we did a very good job in my opinion," she said.

"We continued to build up our customer base we're hoping that they will follow us to Cardigan."

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