Handcar Tours’ month-to-month lease extension denied and business set to close

MARINA, Calif. (KION-TV) -- Handcar Tours confirmed to KION Friday that they will be forced to shut their doors for good at the end of November.

"We're really hoping that TAMC will work with us. We're still hoping things can be worked out," said Mason Clark, whose family runs Handcar Tours in Marina. "We're a family business and so we're devastated."

There were rumors around a temporary month-to-month lease for Handcar Tours, but Clark said that Transportation Agency of Monterey County (TAMC) advised against offering the company a month-to-month lease during a Marina City Council meeting last June.

"I've seen that the Handcar folks have actually opposed and tried to delay and stop the public benefit project," said TAMC Executive Director Todd Muck in the June 4 Marina City Council meeting. "So my recommendation to the board would be not to extend their contract."

"Their taking revenge on us," Clark said of TAMC's suggestion to the city not to extend the Handcar Tours' lease on a month-to-month basis.

According to Muck, the City of Marina's lease with Handcar Tours officially expires October 31, and the board decided to let it expire without renewal.

Clark says that the bus project "isn't coming anytime soon," and that Handcar Tours is still really interested in working with the city and TAMC to extend the business' lifespan.