Scott Newell, owner of Big City Small World Bakery, is in an enviable position for a small business owner: he’s his own landlord. In 2014, he purchased the quirky orange building–the only one in town with a stegosaurus sculpture–at the corner of Miller and Spring.

Newell says he was fortunate to have a great landlord, Eric Cazepis, ever since he bought the bakery and coffee shop in 2002. Cazepis gave him the right to match any sale offer on the building–and when he did decide to sell, Newell emails, he “honored my first refusal clause rather than offering parcel for an inflated price and saying, “Sorry, Charlie.”

Though the $275,000 price was a comparative bargain, it was still a big investment for a small business owner. Newell is just now working on the financing to make planned expansions to the business and the building. He says to expect substantial changes within the next year. “You buy and then you wait a little bit, and then you’re able to borrow because you have the right numbers, and then you expand,” he says. “So that’s the next phase.”

Becoming his own landlord is one more step toward Newell’s goal of being a complete, hands-on business owner: he already grows much of his own produce and does the baking himself. Now that he owns the building he says he has more flexibility, which translates to higher ingredient integrity and better prices.

Newell says that the inspiration for Big City Small World has always been the funky little independent bakeries and coffee shops that popped up in the 1970s and ’80s and that can still be found in urban centers and some college towns. So whatever the changes, the wire-sculpture stegosaurus–and the mermaid on the bench around the corner–should be safe.