Neil Perry’s Margaret restaurant to pay rent based on number of diners it gets during Covid

Neil Perry and his landlord have struck a very Covid deal — rent payments linked to how many people dine at his Double Bay restaurant.

Until last week the Fortis Development Group had not charged its most high profile tenant, star chef Neil Perry, rent for his fabulous Margaret restaurant in Sydney’s Double Bay, which he has been operating since June.

Perry spent $3.5m fitting out Margaret, named after his mother, into a stunning restaurant that can seat 120 guests inside and a further 50 customers outside.

After striking a 10-year lease agreement with his landlord Fortis, Perry was due to open in late June, just a day after the Covid outbreak hit.

He already had the menu in hand with wood grilled lobster with sambal butter as well as CopperTree beef with chimichurri featuring strongly.

Neil Perry has adapted his menu for home-delivery during lockdowns that kept the restaurant closed. Picture: Nikki Short

“We hadn’t been charging any rent until last week,” said Fortis Development Group director Charles Mellick.

“He is going to pay some rent as a token,” said Mr Mellick, adding that Mr Perry will pay a percentage of rent based on the amount of diners he attracts.

“It’s only because Neil has been trading for six weeks and has been doing very good figures,” said Mr Mellick.

Under the deal, if Margaret is 20 per cent full of customers, Perry pays 20 per cent rent.

But Fortis, a property developer owned by Pallas Group, is also supporting Mr Perry in other ways, with its 50 office staff patronising Margaret daily for his takeaway meals and its boxes of premium food and wine.

Mr Mellick says requests for token rent relief from both his residential and commercial tenants has not been as much during this lockdown compared with the last Sydney lockdown.

In Sydney, Fortis and Pallas have around 15,000sq m of commercial and residential tenants and around 10,000sq m of tenants in Melbourne.

Chef Neil Perry at his new restaurant, Margaret in Double bay. Picture: John Appleyard

“We have heaps of tenants in Melbourne and Sydney, the request for token rent relief is not as much as last year, and we are fairly flexible particularly with the retailers.

“The truth is we want to do the right thing by our retailers to make sure they remain strong well after this pandemic has gone.

“In the first lockdown we had a heap of people making things up. Now you have to prove your loss of job, a 30 per cent drop in income and that sort of thing, but we never actually enforced it,” Mr Mellick admitted.

As for Mr Perry, he is employing around 50 restaurant staff and has been talking to all of them about getting vaccinated.

“Everybody is very keen to get their life back, we don’t really have anti-vaxxers here,” Mr Perry said.

“We are all keen to see our family, friends, and to travel, to go to pubs and restaurants, and go and see the world.

“I have 50 like minded people working here,” says Mr Perry, adding that he is totally vaccinated with AstraZeneca.