The Royal Bean, hot coffee spot in Yarmouth, has notified its customers that it will be closing its doors at the end of business on Sunday – 1 p.m. – because a pending sale of the shop has fallen through.

The Main Street coffee shop opened seven years ago. Then in 2012, the owner wanted to sell, prompting a group of 16 customers, residents and investors to buy the shop and save it from closing. The group has operated it since then.

“We’ve always seen ourselves as a bridge to a sole proprietor or another owner,” said Matt Owen, a Yarmouth resident who is one of the 16 current owners of the shop. “We just got together to buy it because we didn’t want to see the community aspect go away.”

The ownership group was expecting to close on a sale to an outside buyer on July 31, but the day before, they learned that the sale would not go through, Owen said.

Why not just stay open and wait for another buyer? Virtually all the staff members had already planned to leave Aug. 1, and a new staff had not been hired, he said.

“We didn’t have the ability to run it in a way that would offer the kind of service we wanted to deliver. The abrupt nature of the change hadn’t allowed us to do the hiring, and none of the managers are in a position to take on full responsibility of the shop.”

He said the group is talking with a few potential buyers, and hopes to find someone soon so that it can stay open.

“They serve excellent coffee,” said Owen. “But more than that, it has been a place to read, get work done or meet people.”

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