However, Grangers and Marina Cantina’s days look to be numbered, with the new owner telling the Herald they would eventually close for redevelopment.
Reynolds told the Herald the landlord didn’t grant the prior owners a new lease for those locations.
He said The Franklin was “sold pre-liquidation” to “an arms-length third party”. The Franklin is located in Beachlands.
Meanwhile, the assets of Grangers and Marina Cantina were bought by a different party.
The Herald spoke to the new owner of Grangers and Marina Cantina, who didn’t wish to be named, but said they had been involved in the hospitality industry for about 15 years.
“I’ve been in the game for a while,” he said.
The new owner, who has a business partner, said they came in on September 2. All the staff at both locations remained the same, he said.
However, both operations – which are at 1 Ara-Tai Rd in Auckland’s Half Moon Bay – will be closed in time to make way for a redevelopment.
“Grangers and the Marina place will be closed down eventually and a whole new place will be redeveloped,” the new owner said.
“This particular one is a unique one because the lease had come to an end on the previous owners, so that’s when I took it over to potentially be a clean site.
“In the end, I negotiated something with the owners and I just bought the remaining part of their lease off them. I gave them some goodwill. And I took over early while I work on the design for the new place.”
The new owner gave no timeframe for when the two locations would close.
“We’ve only just had architects in just last week. The whole process from design to opening up a new brand generally takes six months minimum,” he said.
“It’s going to be completely different from what it is now.”
The deal comes as the hospitality industry faces difficult trading conditions.
“It’s not a great time to be in hospitality right now,” the new owner said.
“People aren’t spending anywhere near what they used to spend.
“Now when you do something you’ve got to make sure that you’re brand new and people have got to see something that’s flashy and wow for them to come spend their hard-earned money on.
“You pay for locations and then you’ve got to build something that makes people want to come and that’s the end result of this place here, why we took this one on.”
Grangers is described as a gastropub while Marina Cantina is a Mexican restaurant “slinging tacos and margaritas seven days a week”, according to its website.
The first liquidator’s report for Cooke and Henry Limited, Italian Stallion Limited and The Franklin Limited is due on September 18.
A Restaurant Association survey from July indicated 78% of Auckland businesses and 76% nationwide said revenue was down from a year ago.
Lower inflows of tourists compared with pre-pandemic times as well as customers watching their wallets have battered the sector.
Notable restaurant closures this year include SPQR – which now has new owners, and Homeland.
Cameron Smith is an Auckland-based journalist with the Herald business team. He joined the Herald in 2015 and has covered business and sports. He reports on topics including retail, small business, the workplace and macroeconomics.
