Business ventures overseas prompted the principal owner of the restaurant in the Bathhouse to sell, but he believes uncertainty over the lease is stopping interested buyers from signing on the dotted line.
Restaurateur Ben Chardome told the Queenstown Times by email the time had come for him to move on after co-owning the Bathhouse cafe-restaurant for 11 years. "Especially as I am now involved in a large resort project in west Bali where I can apply my financial management skills and forget about the daily nitty-gritty of running a cafe-restaurant."
The business in the 97-year-old Bathhouse on the Queenstown Bay waterfront dropped its selling price by $150,000 after 18 months on the market.
The asking price for the business is now about $300,000 and includes stock and the lease for the premises.
Mr Chardome said interested parties were uncertain about the lease for the building. The building is owned by the Queenstown Lakes District Council, and the lease expires on December 30, 2013.
Meteor Properties Ltd took a 15-year lease from QLDC on January 1, 1999, and sublet to restaurant operators since then.
Lakes Property manager Joanne Conroy said the council had not yet considered whether a new lease would be offered.
"Because it is a lease on a public reserve, the process would require public notification and approval of the minister of conservation.
"There's no right of renewal. The lessee would come to council and say they want a new lease about 12 months before expiry. We would chase the lessee about six months before expiry.
"There is nothing to stop the tenant asking for a new lease now, but they have not."
Meteor Properties director Chris James, of Queenstown, did not return calls from the Queenstown Times.
Ray White Queenstown real estate agent Ken Bania said there had been 15 expressions of interest in the business, the most serious of those from hospitality operators based in Queenstown, Wellington and Auckland.
The price drop for the Bathhouse business was due to "general economic circumstances" affecting the market, Mr Bania said.
The business employed 14 staff, including five chefs in the kitchen.
Mr Chardome said the employees, some of whom "know the place and its procedures like the back of their hand", would likely be rehired by any buyer as they were committed and efficient.
The lease stated the Bathhouse must be operated as a dining facility or at least a place serving meals and allow the community to enjoy the historic building and its beach front location.
Mr Bania said it was "most likely" the council would renew after 2013.
"It won't be confirmed until much closer to the expiry date."
Mr Chardome said he was keen to sell now to allow for a buyer to use the quiet period to adjust the business to their own vision.
He credited head chef and business partner Joff Bertram with giving the Bathhouse "a truly culinary reputation".
"The original concept I took over in May 1998 was a tearooms, really, and successive chefs have lifted that image," he said.
The Bathhouse: through the years
• March 7, 1911: Miss H. E. Beeby writes to the municipal council offering 20 towards the construction of a bathing house.
• June 6: The council moves that a bathing shed be erected as a memorial of the coronation of King George V and that the government be asked for a subsidy.
• June 27: Queenstown celebrates the coronation with a procession. At one point, the party stops at the site chosen for the bathing house and Miss Beeby turns the first sod.
• October 10: The Tourist Department tells the council that the lease of the bathing site has been given at a peppercorn rental and the railway authorities have no objection to the Bathhouse being erected on the railway reserve. John Salmond successfully tenders 315 for construction.
• February 6, 1912: Council calls for tenders for a crown to sit on top of the Bathhouse.
• March 12: The Coronation Bathing House is officially opened by Tourist Department Minister Thomas Mackenzie and Mayor J. Edgar.
• 1920s: The Bathhouse becomes a public changing room and popular children's play area, with a springboard and two diving platforms over Lake Wakatipu.
• 1940s and 1960s: The building is used as a summer teahouse, by students and the Wakatipu Rowing Club at different stages.
• Late 1970s: The Bathhouse becomes dilapidated and in need of major restoration.
• 1987: Despite calls for the demolition of the Bathhouse, the Department of Conservation and the Historic Places Trust replace damaged and rotten timber but the building remains prone to flooding and vandalism.
• 1993: The Queenstown Borough Council offers it for commercial lease. Jackie Gillies, Queenstown architect and specialist in historic buildings, submits the only tender for a 12-month occupancy and converts it into an architectural studio.
• 1996: Wakatipu restaurateur Guy Evatt takes over the lease and turns the Bathhouse into a teahouse. Three months of renovations take place and include raising the building by 35cm and the addition of wings for toilets and a sunroom.
• February 14, 1997: The Bathhouse reopens.
• May 1998: Current co-owner Ben Chardome takes over the business.
• November 1999: The Bathhouse is flooded again and damaged by 1.2m of silt and water. The building is restored and upgraded over four months to become a cafe by day and a fine dining establishment by night.
• 2007: The Bathhouse business goes on the market.
- Source: Lakes District Museum and the Bathhouse
