Little interest for cafe

TENDERS for Grafton's art gallery cafe closed earlier this week without a single expression of interest being received by Clarence Valley Council.

TENDERS for Grafton's art gallery cafe closed earlier this week without a single expression of interest being received by Clarence Valley Council.

Council's manager of assets George Kriflik said that the only option would be to readvertise.

The art gallery cafe has been the home to Georgie's Cafe for the past 11 years and has been the subject of lengthy negotiations due to a proposed rate increase by council.

Mr Kriflik said that due to a confidentiality agreement between the parties involved, he was not able to disclose many of the details of the lease or negotiations, but he did confirm the previously quoted figure of a 40 per cent rent increase was an error (The Daily Examiner, April 17), with the original increase being closer to 33 per cent.

"After a re-valuation the rate was reduced to a 14.5 per cent increase," Mr Kriflik said.

However, this too was declined by the lessors and resulted in the current cafe operators deciding to move on.

"Everything is amicable and we'd like to keep it that way," said Mr Kriflik.

Meanwhile, Georgie's Cafe owners Judy and Mark Hackett say they are ready to put the past behind them, with the final dinner service to be held on June 22.

Mrs Hackett said there had been many sleepless nights worrying about how they would be able to keep all their staff employed and although there were plans for a new venture, nothing had been finalised yet.

Mr Hackett said he wanted to thank the many people who had supported the cafe over the past 11 years and get the message out that the cafe was still open for business.

"It is the end of an era with the closing of Georgie's for us" he said.

Councillor Ian Tiley said that he wasn't at the council meeting when the decision was taken and was not going to be critical of the council, but he was disappointed at the way things happened.

Originally published as Little interest for cafe