A beloved northwest Calgary café is being forced from a location they’ve been in for nearly 30 years as the city charges ahead with Bearspaw South feeder main repairs.

Cathy Jacobs, owner of Angel’s Café at 4105 Montgomery View NW, nestled along the banks of the Bow River at Edworthy Park, said she was given notice Thursday that her operation had 30 days to remove its building and all other property from the location.

That location is one of three that have been designated as a staging ground for Bearspaw South feeder main work.

After receiving a text from her manager on Thursday at 1:30 p.m., informing her of a meeting with city officials, and that Jacobs should be there, she thought that it was just to inform her of expected disruptions in the area.

“I thought they were just going to come in there to give us some guidance as to what that looks like, and so, we certainly weren’t prepared for an immediate termination,” she told LWC on Friday afternoon.

“According to my manager, he said he looked in their eyes, it was like there was no emotion, there was no compassion. There was no ‘well, we’ll work with you a little bit.’ No. Thirty days.”

She said barring a miracle, it means she’ll have to shut the business down at the end of this weekend to comply with the request. It’s a million-dollar, four-piece building that she had brought to the site brand new in 2019.  Jacobs estimated the removal costs would be $500,000 alone.

“I’m going to tell you, it’s impossible for us to do what they’re asking. I have no place to put a building.”

“I don’t have that kind of money. I’ve got a debt load that I was counting on the next five years to make sure we got that taken care of, which I’m on the hook for.”

Disruptions were expected, not termination: Jacobs

LWC contacted the City of Calgary early Friday afternoon for a direct response to the situation at Angel’s Café. They said that as a result of the accelerated nature of the project, there will be significant construction impacts in this area.

“At this time, this includes access to the business and parking lot being unavailable for the duration of construction, significant construction equipment needing to be routed through the area, and long-term road access limitation,” the City of Calgary said via an email response.

They added that they contacted Angel’s Café as soon as they became aware of the impact of the project on the business and its customers.

“Angel’s Café had recently exercised their one remaining option to renew for a further 5 years, although the agreement was terminable by either party on 30 days’ notice,” read the City response.

Infrastructure Services GM Michael Thompson addressed the potential disruptions in the area on Thursday. He was asked if the City expected residents to have a higher threshold for disruption due to the expedited fix on the Bearspaw South feeder main.

“There will definitely be disruption as we deliver this project. We are not sure what that looks like yet, but as we accelerate this, there will be additional disruption,” Thompson said.  

“So, we apologize to anyone working or living around the areas as we need to really advance this critical infrastructure to have it completed before next winter. It’s really balancing the impact to the entire community and the safety of making sure we have safe, clean drinking water for everyone, versus those localized impacts.

“As we develop the plans, we will be out talking to those businesses and communities and working with them, but there will be additional disruption through 2026.”

Mayor Jeromy Farkas also commented on the sacrifice that Calgarians would have to make.

“There are some areas where tie ins may be required at the surface level, but the greatest disruption to the city is if we do not fix this pipe,” he said.

“There is no permanent fix to the Bearspaw feeder main, so we’re in a race against time to complete this replacement pipe, and we are on track to deliver in one single year what would otherwise take four. We’re asking for the community’s support as we work through this process.”

Jacobs said she knew there would be disruptions, and they were going to do their part as the work in the area needed to be done.

“This is a permanent termination as of today. The shock value for my team right now, like we’re in shock,” she said.

“Like, there’s no way logistically we could do what they’re asking us to, there is absolutely no way to do this.”

Twenty-eight years of success

Ward 7 Coun. Myke Atkinson, who serves the area where Angel’s Café is located, said that the popular small business is a very unfortunate casualty of the city’s push to get the Bearspaw work done swiftly. It’s a location he visited a couple of times last summer himself.

Atkinson said, however, the City of Calgary’s recent decision to micro-tunnel this portion of the Bearspaw replacement is actually a less destructive option than the cut-and-cover that was initially favoured.

“We were talking about how an open cut and cover, and speed at all costs, was going to have a drastic impact,” he said.

“We’re lucky in that micro tunneling has come back onto the table for the Montgomery portion, which doesn’t mean there is no disruption to community, but it is way less than what has been talked about over the last couple of weeks.”

Atkinson said that Angel’s Café and a couple of houses on the northwest side of the Edworthy Park parking lot were likely going to be impacted either way, just due to their proximity to the Shaganappi Pump Station.

“It’s never great. You never want to sort of see these kinds of impacts on residents or the community. But we, I think, are seeing less with the current solution than what had potentially been on the table,” he said.

The emergency nature of getting the pipe in as quickly as possible wasn’t going to come without impact, he said. It was something that needed to be done to prevent a much bigger impact on the community should there be another rupture. He said his office is committed to helping businesses and residents navigate through some of the difficulties through advocacy to city administration.

When asked, Atkinson wasn’t certain if there would be any discussion of compensation for businesses or residents.

Jacobs said their location is ideal; people from all across Calgary are familiar with Angel’s Café. It started as a food truck in the same location in 1998. It went that way for eight years.

Then, they brought in a smaller building and operated out of that building for 18 years.

In that time, she’s built a team of 12 that operates as the winter staff. Jacobs said it includes her manager, a single dad with four boys. It includes a cook who’s been with her since 2015 and is trying to obtain his permanent residency through their sponsorship, and a long-time employee who is expecting a child. She also employs students and other young Calgarians.

“This business isn’t just about Angel’s cafe. This is about a community,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs said she hasn’t slept since she got the notice. Yet she doesn’t even know where to begin to salvage her operation.

“If we manage to pull it off and get everything out of here and manage to find a place to put everything, which I can’t even begin to see what that looks like, but if I we even managed to it, I can’t even imagine the shock it’s going to be for the people that count on this place to be what it is, and suddenly they come down here and it’s an empty lot again,”

“This is trauma. This is trauma for my team.”

The City of Calgary is on a path to have a replacement Bearspaw feeder main line in place by December 2026.