The $78,000 listing for the ‘‘well-positioned, central city restaurant’’, and stock, hit the property market around February.
‘‘This location has had a few different identities over a number of years with different operators.’’
It was anonymous for commercially sensitive reasons and interested parties were required to complete a confidentiality agreement, the listing said.
ABC Business Sales business broker Jason Marshall declined to say what street the Dunedin restaurant was on, or the seller’s reason for keeping it a secret.
‘‘Dunedin is a very small town,’’ he said.
‘‘It doesn't take much to work it out.’’
This style of listing was not that unusual; about one in every 10 vendors opted to keep their businesses anonymous.
It did, however, make them harder for brokers to sell, Mr Marshall said.
‘‘Certainly, from a buyer perspective, the first question out of their mouth is, ‘What is it and where is it?’
‘‘It's pretty difficult to sell a secret.’’
Mr Marshall said there was a lot of buyer interest for hospitality businesses and the market was strong.
There had been quite a bit of movement for a while now, but it was nothing out of the ordinary, he said.
The Good Earth Cafe, in North Dunedin, is one business that has changed hands recently.
Co-owners Laura Foley and Diane McIlwraith — who have about 60 years combined hospitality experience between them — offically took over on May 13.
‘‘We're both very old hands in the game,’’ Mrs Foley said.
Their first day of business coincided with University of Otago graduations which, while ‘‘hectic’’, ran smoothly in the end.
‘‘Everybody handled the pressure really well with the changes that we'd made.
‘‘It was just very, very busy, but it had such a beautiful feeling to it.’’
The pair had once worked together at Glenfalloch Garden Cafe & Restaurant for about two years. They decided they should one day buy a cafe together after six weeks of working with each other.
She had always kept her eye on The Good Earth, Mrs Foley said.
There were new plants and a fresh lick of paint, but the cafe would remain mostly the same with ‘‘nothing fancy schmancy’’.
They were toying with the idea of opening the cafe in the evenings in the future, or branching out into catering and private events, she said.
‘‘I don't think that we could have chosen a better cafe to take ownership of in Dunedin.
‘‘It's a well-known Dunedin cafe that people love.’’
St Clair’s Long Dog Cafe also went on the commercial property market about a month ago, listed for $825,000.
It joins older listings including Woof!, Moiety, Ironic Cafe & Bar and Bacon Buttie Station.
