Taj Mahal owners say they will go out of business over parking concern

Owners of a long-standing Indian restaurant in Calgary are worried they won't be able to stay open because of a change to customer parking.

CALGARY — The owners of a historic Indian cuisine restaurant say they’ll be out of business if they don’t get access to their current parking lot, following its sale by the City of Calgary.

Naresh Sohal, co-owner of the Taj Mahal, located on Macleod Trail S.W. says the parking lot behind his business is used for customers eating at the nearly 50-year-old eatery.

The restaurant has been leasing the spot for at least 30 years from the city who owned the space.

It was put up for sale in February for a price of $475,000 plus GST.

“We even bid more than half a million dollars because you can see how desperate we were to just get this property,” said Sohal.

“They did not give us first right to refuse, and they just gave this property to someone else.”

Ward 9 councillor Gina-Carlo Carra says there was a higher bidder and that the city has owned the lot for several years.

He adds that when it was put up for sale, it was to help stimulate the economy.

“One of the strategies is to get a lot of land that is just sitting there lying fallow, into more productive use,” he said.

Carra added that although the restaurant leases the land, if a space can become more productive – the city will always look to other avenues.

“There are very few instances where we do a direct sale,” he said.

Sohal says the city came to him in February saying it planned to sell the lots.

The lot is located at 4811 and 4815 First St. S.W. and is about 30 metres by 37 metres.

Offers were being accepted until March 12, and Sohal says he found out on Friday that the sale had closed and his bid was not accepted.

Sohal is the second owner of the restaurant since its opening in 1973.

Sohal and his partner, Gurtej Saini, have owned it since 2012 and hope the city reverses course on its decision.

“They are forcing us to just shut this business down,” said Sohal.

Sohal says due to the restaurant’s location, there is no parking in the front which faces Macleod Trail.

The entrance is located in the back, where an alley separates it from the gravel parking lot.

It has space for between 30 and 40 vehicles.

Sohal says with no spot to park, he will lose customers.

“This will be a loss for the city for this Taj Mahal restaurant, which is a landmark in Calgary,” he said.

But Carra is aware of the Taj Mahal’s concerns and believes there are other options that could help keep the business operating when it comes to other avenues of parking.

“It’s a three-lane strip of Macleod Trail and, obviously, during the morning rush it’s needed to be three lanes of traffic. But during dinner time, maybe we can allow some on-street parking,” said Carra.

The Taj Mahal owners say it has faced difficult times during COVID-19, but have managed to stay afloat.

They have relied on take-out services, such as Skip The Dishes, where drivers also park in that lot to pick-up orders.

Carra says the area along 50 Avenue S.W. allows for an infill station location for the CTrain.

He says a LRT station was on the books in the 1980s before it was cut due to costs, but he believes if the city is able to increase the right jobs and people living in the area, it could eventually be built.

CTV News reached out to the city real estate agent on the file, Marco Sciore, but have not received a response about who the new owner of the property is.