La Provence Restaurant in Roseville is Closing

La Provence, a longtime restaurant and event space in Roseville, is set to close this weekend, but its owner said there’s one last option being explored to potentially save it.

The restaurant and event space has operated at its location at 110 Diamond Creek Place in Roseville since 2004. The restaurant specializes in Provencal and California cuisine and has garnered 4.4 stars on OpenTable following nearly 5,000 reviews.

Owner Stephen Des Jardins said the business will be be permanently closing, with its lease set to expire soon. Des Jardins, a local commercial real estate developer, said he attempted to negotiate a new lease deal with the landlord but was unsuccessful.

La Provence’s last dinner service is planned for Sept. 14.

“We really appreciate the community who supported us for 20 years, all the staff, our vendors and everyone who has shown appreciation and celebrated our locally-owned restaurant,” Des Jardins said. “We were able to be here for 20 years because the community wanted us here.”

Des Jardins said he notified his employees a few weeks ago about the planned closure. Since then, a few of the restaurant’s longtime customers and community members have expressed interest in partnering up to purchase the property and keep the business operating, with one individual reportedly committing $500,000 to the effort.

He said the idea for the group to purchase the property and business was inspired by The Firehouse Restaurant takeover earlier this year in Old Sacramento, which saw the business’s longtime owners sell to a group led by a frequent customer and an employee who had been there since the 1970s.

“There have been ongoing conversations over the last few days about us buying the building with the landlord, but nothing definitive,” Des Jardins said on Friday afternoon. “Right now it’s day to day, but the reality is, unless something happens, we’ll be out of here a week from today.”

Real estate information service Reonomy lists the owner of the property as Truckee-based Hidden Lake Properties Inc., which purchased the property in 2015 for $3.5 million. A representative of the ownership group referred the Business Journal to local broker Scott Kingston of Turton Commercial Real Estate, who along with colleague Ken Turton, is listing the building for sale.

Kingston said the owners are open to Des Jardins and the group making an offer, but as of now the approximately 12,000-square-foot building is being listed for sale at $4.9 million. Kingston said he’s already received half a dozen inquiries about the space from interested parties despite the listing not being made public yet, which he expects to happen within the next few weeks.

“The building is really special and highly improved,” Kingston said. “I think a lot of restaurant investors or restaurant owners will want to take advantage of that, and it comes with all furniture, fixtures and equipment in place.”