ANN ARBOR, MI -- An Ann Arbor-area family that owns three South University Avenue businesses is shutting down two of them and moving the third to make way for a high-rise.

Rendezvous Hookah Lounge closed its doors Jan 11. South U Pizza shut down in December and Oasis Grill is moving across the street to a space where China Gate previously operated.

The three businesses were renting space in a pair of buildings on South University between Church Street and E. University Avenue, where the 13-story Vic Village South is set to be developed by Hughes Properties. The existing buildings are expected to be demolished. Adjacent businesses Cantina and Good Time Charley’s are expected to remain.

Rendezvous Hookah Lounge owner Maher El-Awar lamented the changing landscape in downtown Ann Arbor, the construction of more high-rises and the effect it’s had uprooting family-owned businesses.

“I grew up in Ann Arbor my whole life,” said El-Awar. “The city I grew up in is not the city I currently live in.”

He credits his father, Nizar El-Awar, for launching the family’s entrepreneurial spirit decades ago as an immigrant from Lebanon.

“He is my biggest inspiration for running this place because he came with nothing and built the Rendezvous empire," Maher El-Awar said.

Nizar El-Awar came to the U.S. in the late 1970s to visit his brother at the University of Michigan. He soon decided to stay, eventually opening Oasis Deli in 1986, his son said. The restaurant is now known as Oasis Grill.

With the business thriving, Nizar El-Awar expanded into the space next door, establishing Rendezvous Café in 1991, offering coffee from around the world, along with crepes. A hookah menu was introduced on the second floor of Rendezvous Café in 2003, Maher El-Awar said. The cafe was later converted to South U Pizza, with Rendezvous Lounge on the second floor.

Maher El-Awar said his father asked him to help with the hookah lounge in 2009, when the Michigan’s Smoke-Free Air Law was enacted.

Obtaining the necessary exemptions to remain open and adhering to new and changing regulations has been a challenge, he said.

The family sought to maintain a quieter vibe at the lounge, where students could smoke and study in an atmosphere that was similar to cafes in the family’s native Lebanon, El-Awar said.

About 30 former employees and customers of the lounge met their spouses at Rendezvous, he said. One of those couples chose to get married inside the lounge, and El-Awar was ordained as an Dudeist minister so he could officiate the wedding.

In recent years, the business was met with another challenge in the rise of vaping, El-Awar said.

“The hookah business as a whole wasn’t the same after that,” he said. “We started seeing a drop in sales.”

Then, Ann Arbor in 2016 raised the local tobacco purchasing age to 21, further narrowing the business’ client base.

City Council approved plans for Vic Village South last year, sealing the fate of the hookah lounge.

Anticipating closure, El-Awar said he notified his employees in Aug. 2019. The lounge closed its doors on Jan. 11.

“It is sad for us to say, but today is our last day of business," El-Awar announced on the company Facebook page. "It’s been a great decade of serving hookah in Ann Arbor. Thank you to every person that has spent their nights studying, smoking, and spending their time at our hookah lounge over the years. It was a pleasure serving you all.”

El-Awar said the challenges of running the business led El-Awar to go to college and study cybersecurity. He now works in data protection at Barracuda Networks.