Conflicts with a previous landlord and rising expenses prompted Andrea Swanson, co-owner of Scattoloni Bakery at One Monument Way, to decide to move her business from downtown Portland. Michael Kelley / The Forecaster

PORTLAND — The owners of Scattoloni Bakery have decided to close the business after five years at One Monument Way.

Andrea Swanson, who co-owns the former Foley’s Bakery with her husband David, said she is not seeking a new lease due to years of rising costs and demands from the previous building owner that she take on things she felt shouldn’t be part of the lease.

“We have spent so much money in terms of interpreting, reinterpreting and combating the requirements the (previous) building owner has sent us,” Swanson said June 25. “I couldn’t imagine negotiating another lease and knew I had to get out of here.”

She said she plans to move the business in August.

Swanson said she began looking for new space in late 2016, but the options in the city that were the right size were too expensive and the ones that she could afford were too small.

Swanson purchased the bakery from the Foley family in 2014 and said for the first year she had no issues with former building owners Mike and Lucy Casey, of One Monument Way LLC. That changed when the building was sold in fall 2015.

Swanson said it was soon after East End Corp. purchased the building in September 2015 for $5.24 million that costs and demands started to escalate.

East End Corp.’s lawyer, Jeff Selser, of Fletcher, Selser & Devine in Portland, said the lease Swanson had was already in operation when his client purchased the building. The issue, he said, was the interpretation of that lease.

“Sometimes when you buy a building, you are handed a lease that is not as clear as it could be,” Selser said.

Scattoloni Bakery (formerly Foley’s) on Monument Way in Portland will close in August after its owner decided not to sign a new lease. Michael Kelley / The Forecaster

Under the previous owners, Swanson said, she had been charged an annual fee of $240 to cover the cost of maintaining the central area of the building that runs from Monument Square to Free Street. Under East End Corp.’s ownership, that climbed to $400 a year and eventually close to $900 a year. Swanson said she was also asked to take over maintaining and cleaning one of the restrooms in the building, and maintaining a ventilation system in the building.

Selser said it is common to have tenants to pay a share of common-area costs, and “over the four years of the tenant-landlord relationship, there were disputes about what should be included in that common-area maintenance.”

“It was things I never had to pay for before and suddenly I was being asked to pay for them,” Swanson said.

Selser disagreed.

“There was nothing we were asking her to pay that wasn’t included in the lease,” he said. “I don’t know if the previous owners have waived some things, but I can definitely tell you, we were not asking her to cover things she wasn’t obligated to do in the lease.”

Swanson notified East End Corp. she wasn’t renewing the lease before the entity sold the building in April to CF OMW LLC for $7.25 million.

“I couldn’t sign up for another five years of not knowing what I was going to be walking into,” she said.

She said the new owners offered to reduce her lease in an attempt to lure her back, but by that point, Swanson had already made other arrangements.

Swanson will be moving the business to Building 10 at the Pepperell Mill Campus in Biddeford, where she’ll share space with her friend Lisa Parker of Cakes for All Seasons.

At least initially, she won’t be operating a retail bakery. Instead, Swanson said she will focus on wholesale clients, special orders and baking classes.

Swanson offered classes at One Monument Way, but her new space will allow her to expand beyond the one-day courses offered there. She said she plans to have six-week session focused on different techniques and elements of baking.

“I think it will be fun for me,” she said. “… It is what I love to do.”