It’s the opposite situation down in Mittagong Pete
2 pubs -
1st one - the husband and wife that have taken it over have completely refurbished it , repainted the outside, renamed it , spruced up the food etc . It’s now quite a good place to have a few and gets a good clientele base now. Still a few pokies but they are hidden away
2nd one - recently purchased by hotel family from Robertson in Highlands. Closed for major renovations but it will be good as the one they have in Robertson is great . Will be open soon, it needed a good going over
The people who have bought it have no interest in the “community” whatsoever they’ve stripped it of the pokies which is what they wanted and have no intention the reverb. It’s back on the market for a lousy $1.3m they paid $6.2m (apparently) just to get the pokies.
We’re hoping that’s what happens it’d be nice for a local to own it as they’ll be more interested it the town as a whole. Fckng merchant bankers and capital ventures are the curse of small communities, pricks are even buying farms here as well.
The Italian restaurant where I go to for breakfast ( and sometimes lunch) in the city are closing in 2 weeks and not coming back
Run by 2 lovely brothers and wife, and have built it up over 5 years plus and survived through covid
This is a case of corporate landlord ( and I work for property company) being stupid and not understanding retail.
The brothers wanted to sign a new 10 year deal at a reasonable rent but the landlord wanted a rent right over the top, I won’t say what it was but I work in that space and it was complete nuts, plus they wanted all the back rent reductions during covid repaid
Further the city is not back to pre covid days and probably may never be with office workers back to say 40% level pre covid in the office.
It’s a great restaurant and often on my Fridays off work I would go there with couple of friends and have a great time and laughs with the owners, it was fun and the food and Italian wine was fantastic
A case of corporate greed gone completely over the top , so the site will remain vacant for a long time until some unsuspecting mug comes along I guess
The boys will open up somewhere else but probably not in the city , we are keeping in touch
A friend of ours was run a very successful fish and chip shop in Bateau Bay for almost 15 years. They wanted to retire and sell the business, they had let the existing lease lapse and approached the landlord for a new one and he refused and even worse gave them 3 months to vacate.
They’d never missed a rent and never argued about increase or complained about issues they were a perfect tenant. Their have lost all they good will and had work.
Apparently he now wants a different type of business in the shop.
These brothers are in their early 40’s I guess and come from family Italian restaurants background
Restaurant modern looking they did a great job on the fit out etc , employed great staff and chefs and now they have to find other employment which they will but they all loved working there
Problem is the landlord is a JV between well known property company ( I use to work for ) and you guessed it , a Bank !!!
I’ll stop nagging on about it now but not so good times
