Operators of the Little Manly Beach Kiosk exit as new masterplan takes shape
Customers of a much loved beachside cafe are saddened by a council decision to put out a tender for someone to run it is a bigger operation.
Manly
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Carly Nicol had leased the Little Manly Beach Kiosk for the past two and a half years, but this week she decided to move on.
Ms Nicol said she made the heart wrenching decision to leave a place she loved after its owners — Northern Beaches Council — decided that the beachside cafe building needed to be refurbished.
The Council had invited tender submissions for an individual or organisation to lease, licence and pay for a new fit out of the cafe on the reserve at the back of the beach, just off Stuart St.
After Ms Nicol, with the help of her mum Judy, sat down and crunched the numbers they decided she would focus on her new business, Carly May Catering instead.
“We figured that the rent would go up and that with the extra requirements that the council wanted, a small business person like me couldn’t justify going for it,” she said while moving out on Monday.
“The council wants whoever takes over to spend money on making it a bigger operation, putting in a coolroom, things like that.
“But our customers and the locals say they don’t want a big cafe.”
Ms Nicol said she had not spoken to anybody who was happy with the changes to the cafe.
“Everyone has said they are going to miss us.
“This is not just a cafe, it’s a community.”
A new lessee is expected to be handed the keys next month.
In its tender invitation document the council said the successful tenderer would need to increase the amount of storage space and construct a cool room.
They would also have to design and construct a garbage room with hardstand and drainage.
The council wants the fit-out to be completed within the first 12 months of the $30,000 a year lease, but the council is offering three month’s rent free at the beginning the second year of the lease to support the works.
“Given summer is the busiest time of the year, tenderers may consider scheduling the majority of fit-out works outside of the summer months, being December, January and February,” the tender invitation said.
As part of the lease the cafe can open from 7am to 5pm on Monday and Tuesday; 7am to 10pm Wednesday to Saturday and 7am to 7pm on Sunday.
The minimum hours of operation will be 8am to 3pm each day
The kiosk tender comes as the council voted on Tuesday night to accept a new landscape masterplan for the Little Manly and Little Manly Point reserves and to demolish a house to make way for more open space.
The council-owned house at 40 Stuart St will be torn down in the 2022/23 financial year.
The Masterplan includes more seating adjacent to the kiosk, the planting of more trees and the construction of a public toilet near the car park on Little Manly Point.
Council had already decided to drop plans for a boardwalk along the beach.