Couple moves hair salon to new location

When one door closes another door opens.

That’s the mantra at the top of an advertising flier being handed out by Tobin and Sharon Gentry, who own the newly opened House of Gentry hair salon in the Maricopa Business Center on West Honeycutt Road.

The Gentrys had been doing business since April 2010 under the name Purity Salon and Spa on North John Wayne Parkway near Maricopa Ace Hardware.

But that door closed, according to the couple.

“The move wasn’t a choice,” Sharon said. “We had a dispute with the landlord. They wanted to back-bill us for $20,000 in CAM (common area maintenance) and rent charges. Our attorney told us to move.”

She added their attorney also advised they change the name of the business, so they decided to call it House of Gentry after their last name.

But’s that only half of the problems they had at the previous location, the couple said.

The Gentrys bought the salon from the former business owners in 2009 and took over the last four years of a five-year lease. At that time, they had amended their lease contract for payments lower than what the former owners had been paying.

“When we bought the salon we had negotiated the lease down a little bit because we were just starting out,” Sharon said. “They wanted to go up on rent in the middle of the contract and our attorney said it would cost us more to fight it.”

The Gentrys believe the current property manager, Arcadia Management Group Inc., is in breach of the lease because they were not notified about any of the changes to their agreement.