Calling time for popular Greenwich café with leasehold now up for grabs
![Calling time for popular Greenwich café with leasehold now up for grabs Calling time for popular Greenwich café with leasehold now up for grabs](/cms_media/module_img/7635/3817921_3_articlesmall_External_1_281_29.jpg)
Greenwich Café, formerly Idaho, Caroline Street, Cork
A popular city centre eatery, formerly Café Idaho, now Greenwich café, is being sold as a going concern, with the leasehold up for grabs for €100,000.
With a reputation for good coffee and flavoursome food, the Caroline St premises has traded as a café for nearly 23 years, first under Richard and Mairéad Jacobs for more than two decades, then with Cork-born chef Dermot O’Sullivan taking up the reins in January 2022.
Mr O’Sullivan is now moving on and the leasehold is being sold, with all the fixtures, fittings, furniture, and equipment included in the price.
Greenwich, on the corner of Caroline St and Maylor St, is a 72 sq m (775 sq ft) premises, but seating numbers are bolstered by a large, external seating area with an electric retractable canopy. Inside can accommodate 25 customers, with scope for up to an additional 30 outside.
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Gerard O’Callaghan of ERA Downey McCarthy, who is handling the sale, said the outside seating increases the trading potential of the business.
There’s a street hatch too for direct service to passing foot traffic.
The location is a good one for hospitality, as the streets the café fronts onto are both pedestrianised. It’s also directly to the rear of the upmarket Brown Thomas department store and footfall in the area is excellent.
Accommodation includes café and kitchen, storage and food preparation area, and one WC.
The café is currently held on a 10-year lease, which commenced in May 2015, and the rent per annum is €26,400.
The rateable vaulation is €35.55.
Mr O’Callaghan said a full inventory of contents and financial trading figures are available “on request”.
Coincidentally, the building that houses the café, 19 Maylor St, is being sold too, by joint agents Barry Auctioneers and Casey & Kingston, with tenants unaffected. The guide price for the four-story premises is €925,000, and selling agent Terry Hayes of Barry Auctioneers said there has been “some interest ... but no firm offer yet”.
The 279 sq m property includes the ground-floor café, and a violin maker on the first floor. The remaining units are residential and include one two-bed and four one-bed apartments, which are fully let out. The overall rent roll at the premises is €86,000pa.
Further west, Mr O’Callaghan has also been involved in securing new operators to run Café Atrium, located in the foyer of the Mardyke Arena, on Mardyke Walk.
The 88 sq m café, a pit-stop after gym and swimming sessions at the sports complex, has been taken over by three business partners, who bought the leasehold for a figure believed to be not too far off the asking price of €160,000. One of the partners will be running the café. Previously, it was operated by Simon and Jackie Higgs, who have retired after 13 years.
The 100-seater café, near Fitzgerald’s Park, has a passing rent of c. €25,000pa. It’s held on a six-year lease, from November 1, 2021.
For more details on Greenwich café, contact Gerard O’Callaghan of ERA Downey McCarthy.
Tel: 021 4905000. Email: gerard@eracork.ie