Seven Corners salon replaced by vape shop

The future occupant of the Touch of Class space.

A Tobacco, Vape & More shop is moving into 6315B Leesburg Pike in Seven Corners, the space formerly occupied by the Touch of Class Salon & Spa.

It’s been a tough couple of years for salon owner Kimmie Orita – and not just because of the Covid pandemic.

After the new owner of the property raised the rent and refused to make repairs, Orita relocated Touch of Class a few months ago to an office building nearby at 6201 Leesburg Pike.

According to county tax records, Leaders Properties LLC purchased the building in July from Kewar Associates for $1.3 million. The building also includes the space next to the salon formerly occupied by the Emessa restaurant.

A few weeks after Emessa closed for good, a fire broke out in the restaurant at about 1 a.m. on Dec. 15, 2019. Orita believes the fire was suspicious although, at the time, the Fairfax County Fire Department determined it was accidental.

She says firefighters caused extensive damage to her business. As a result, the roof leaks, mold was growing, and the salon flooded during heavy rains.

The landlord refused to make repairs, Orita says, and her insurance company didn’t cover all the damage. With the building in bad shape, she was losing customers, then the Covid pandemic struck. “It was a really rough time,” she says.

Unable to keep up with rent payments of $4,000 a month, she hired barbers to help keep the business going. Meanwhile, she spent her own money to fix up the place.

The new owner, in an effort to get the salon to leave, raised the rent to $7,000 with no lease, Orita says, then agreed to $4,500. But that was still too much considering the poor shape of the building.

Touch of Class had been in that space for 13 or 14 years, Orita says, but she has been styling hair at various salons for decades. Her customers followed wherever she worked – some for the past 45 years – but now many of them are old and don’t want to move to her new spot in the office building.

Orita feels she’s been taken advantage of because she is an immigrant and lacks an education. Born in Japan, she grew up in Korea and emigrated to the U.S. in 1972.

It’s not the first time she’s been misled by business owners, she says. She bought a residential property over a decade ago with the goal of opening a salon there but wasn’t told that was prohibited by the zoning rules.

“This country is full of cheating, lying people,” she says. She’s especially disappointed that her old salon space will become a hookah bar, as she feels drugs have destroyed so many lives.