Durham restaurant facing foreclosure, owners ask community for help

A Durham restaurant is on the brink of foreclosure and is asking the community for help.

"This is a letter no business owner ever wants to write. COPA is in dire circumstances," co-owners Roberto Copa Matos and Elizabeth Turnbull said on Facebook. "We need your help."

COPA's owners said they've been struggling to survive post-pandemic, and they are in desperate need of legal assistance.

"The pandemic, our now sky-high interest rate from our Small Business Administration mortgage, and the sharp increase in the cost of doing business mean that we urgently need legal assistance to hold off foreclosure," the owners said on Facebook.

A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help COPA raise $16,000.

"Even as we struggle, we remain committed to our mission of cultivating relationships from the soil to the table. As a dear friend said to us recently, COPA does not belong to Roberto and Elizabeth—COPA belongs to the community," the Facebook post read. "Without community, nothing we do matters."