Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Mowlem Restaurant

I see the restaurant Is for sale in the Mowlem 150k for the lease.



Posted by Anonymous to swanageview at 8:03 P
Posted by at
Labels:

54 comments:

Anonymous said...

Expect a long queue to form to buy this lease. A very long queue.

1/12/10 3:04 am
Anonymous said...

You would need to put most of the money down. So only someone with around 120k cash would be able to take it on. Then there's the mowlem committee.

1/12/10 8:03 am
Anonymous said...

Has a restaurant at that site every made enough profit to justify 150k just for buying the lease? Every sit down restaurant in town is struggling. It beggars belief that anyone would want to risk serious money in a restaurant there.

Might make a good Town Hall, though. The theatre for public meetings when not used as a thatre; the restaurant for offices and the TIC, freeing up the White House and Town Hall for disposal. Just a thought. It is not as daft as it sounds, if indeed the Town Hall requires extensive investment to keep it viable. Perhaps a joint involvement between STC and the Mowlem would give the whole building new life?

The only downside is parking.

1/12/10 11:11 am
Anonymous said...

so 150K for the lease and how much rent pa? Rates, Insurance, Maintenance?
Does it include the Viking Bar?

1/12/10 11:49 am
Anonymous said...

My guess, by the time you add a chef, several waitresses, a bar person, dishwasher, pay their salaries and NIC, pay rent and business rates, insurance, basic stock, advertising and goodness knows what else, you would need well in excess of a quarter million to get the door open. Then you have a shoulder season of three months, and a high season or four months, and five months of little trade, to make enough to cover these costs and interest before you draw a penny of salary for the time and risk you take.

1/12/10 12:20 pm
Anonymous said...

so 150K for the lease and how much rent pa? Rates, Insurance, Maintenance?
Does it include the Viking Bar

Go get the details from oliver miles then you can answer all those questions.

1/12/10 1:39 pm
Anonymous said...

30k for rent and 18.5k for rates = 48.5k annual costs on a full repair and insurance basis. Add to that labour costs, heat, light, stock, advertising, bookkeeper, interest (paid or lost) on the 150k needed to buy the business (note: this is not just the lease, but the goodwill, fixtures, fittings and equipment) which might be another 10k or so.....

.....no wonder Sea Salt couldn't make it!!!!!

I agree it would make a good town hall. Downstairs for public offices and a TIC; upstairs for council offices; the Mowlem for public meetings. The present town hall is crumbling and not handicapped accessible and both it and the White House would fetch a lot of money for the town.

Go for it, Martin Ayres!!!

1/12/10 2:09 pm
Anonymous said...

£50k with a years free rent and new glazing paid for sounds about right. One should feel no sympathy for the present operators. Town hall needs to go on new industrial estate, or middle school site. TIC at the station.

1/12/10 3:39 pm
Anonymous said...

Its always interesting to see how many people think they can second guess the surveyor who recommended the rent level to the trustees and the agent who valued the business.

The Mowlem trustees have to get as much income from it as they can. If they rented it for less than they have been told to ask you can imagine the stories that would circulate about deal with pals, funny handshakes etc.

How long ago did downstairs cease to be the "Viking Bar"? 20 years? It brings back memories of the 60s and 70s.

Is there anyone left alive who went to the summer show in the old Mowlem, which was called "Each Evening" every year for what seemed like for ever. I never had the pleasure, if pleasure it was.

Can anyone throw any light on what became of the huge ammonite fossil that decorated the library room at the front of the building?

1/12/10 5:13 pm
Anonymous said...

The ammonite fossil is often seen in STC meetings.

1/12/10 7:30 pm
Anonymous said...

Lets hope no one goes for it and gets their fingers well and truly burnt. Hall and Woodhouse knew exactly what they were doing when they gave up the Mowlem at the end of their lease. Large steak bar type restaurants are out of fashion and it is too large for a Chinese, Italian or similar. There is insufficient disposable income in Swanage all year to support the restaurant. Even in the 60s and 70s it suffered many quiet months, although it was a favoured weekend spot.

The trustees need a rethink about the whole site and how to manage it efficiently. Use as Townhall, offices etc would be good and benefit the town through the sale of other buildings.

1/12/10 11:42 pm
Anonymous said...

Why not move the community room down and do an art gallery/coffee shop up top. The new community room could then be used for functions such as weddings, much like upstairs in the Con Club. Folk are always moaning there is too little community space.

2/12/10 8:36 am
Anonymous said...

Just how much income do you think will come from community rooms/art gallery/weddings and so on that the last post proposes?

Certainly not 30k after all expenses are deducted. This is a business premises, designed to create income for the trust, and not a public building. My guess is that it is the rent income from these spaces that keep the rest of the Mowlem afloat.

Back to my idea of resiting the Town Hall there - I am quite certain the income (and removal of expenses such as rates, upkeep, insurance, heat and light etc.) from the sale (outright or long term lessee-repairing leasehold) of both the Town Hall and the White House will more than cover the costs of leasing and running the Mowlem as the new 'civic centre'. The Town Hall could show some relevant films, such as 'The Mouse that Roared' and 'Passport to Pimlico' which seem to be appropriate to the spirit of our august elected officials (any Ealing Comedy would be appropriate, actually, especially those with Alastair Sim in it). Or 'To Sir With Love' to remind us about the impending closure of our excellent middle school? Or 'Exodus' to remind us what is about to happen to our kiddies as they are shipped out to foreign climes to be educated. Or 'Oliver!' to show us what life will be like in Swanage in 20-30 years' time.

2/12/10 9:42 am
Anonymous said...

But the theatre and community rooms are not part of the sale. Lets return to reality for a moment. Would any of us tolerate the town council paying £30k rent for an office?. If you look at other commercial rents nearby this figure is not out of line. The rent on the Corner Restaurant was £19k years ago when it was offered for sale when Olds pulled out of Swanage. The rebuilt shop next to Boots is £40k.

When it was for sale a couple of years ago someone was interested in having an Indian restaurant there and asked for reactions on Swanageview. There are plenty of ethnic restaurants this size.

2/12/10 10:21 am
Anonymous said...

"Just how much income do you think will come from community rooms/art gallery/weddings and so on that the last post proposes?"

I say you would probably get 30 weddings a year at £2000 for the room only( because people would be able to bring in their own caters, bands etc and not pay hotel mark ups). Very popular. 20 Conferences at say £20 a deligate. Bids and bobs from local groups, Rotary and the like, funeral parties, wind farm exhibitions etc. The rental for the gallery with cafe £15K. £25k for the Viking bar. The four shops @12K each.
That's I recken a rental income pa of nearly £200 000 pa just for the Trustees thinking out of the box. Enough to employ a commercial manager to tie it all up.
What point council offices on the seafront?
Actually what point council offices? Put it all online and have staff working at home.

2/12/10 10:47 am
Anonymous said...

'Actually what point council offices? Put it all online and have staff working at home.'

How would council members be able to swoosh through the electronic gates to the TC car park before meetings??

Where would you go to pay bills, examine plans, see records, meet with the TC or other employees.

At their homes??

2/12/10 11:58 am
Anonymous said...

I believe the TC has a statutory duty to hold public meetings, or meetings open to the public. For that purpose, it needs a room or venue capable of holding al council members and the expected number of public.

To my knowledge, the town has three such venues available (excluding schools): the present Town Hall, the British Legion, and the Vista Bar. The Town Hall is no longer acceptable because it is not handicap accessible. It is also in need of some expensive repairs. These are simply facts.

2/12/10 12:02 pm
Anonymous said...

Where would you go to pay bills =BACS/Direct Debit. STC desperately needs more IT and far less paper shuffling.
Examine plans= Internet/Westport House/(new) library,
See records library/internet
Meet with the TC or other employees e-mail/weekly surgery with Town Clerk for venue see below.
Council meetings: Mowlem/Conservative Club/Methodist Hall/Catholic Hall/Bowling and tennis Club/Vista Complex/URC Hall/Football club/sailing club etc according to likely seating requirements. Far cheaper than maintaining own offices and spreading a bit of welcome cash around methinks. Sell Town hall as Hotel.

2/12/10 12:54 pm
Anonymous said...

Fine. Sell the Town Hall. Put it all online.

Just as STC has its agendas and minutes online. Great, if you want to see agendas that have not been updated since 20th October; minutes that were last posted on 18 October; last monthly meeting's minutes of September.

Not a good sign if one wants STC to embrace the internet age. We are told to pop into the TH to pick up these minutes and agenda. How will we do that if there is no Town Hall?

2/12/10 1:35 pm
Anonymous said...

Give Martin a sensible budget as necessary to implement the changes with a deadline of 6 months to get everything from paying for your allotment to reading up to date minutes online and easy to access online. No consultants! Just use a local web designer.
(He should then be ready to take over PDC website which is now virtually impossible to navigate).

2/12/10 2:41 pm
Anonymous said...

7.2 million or thereabouts from the sale of SBV .... the Town Council has more than enough money to bring its internet presence into the 20th century. It simply hasn't the will to do so.

2/12/10 3:27 pm
Anonymous said...

Isn't it nice how people here propose we close down the town hall and do the work from home? How many redundancies will that lead to?

2/12/10 3:28 pm
Anonymous said...

3.28 Do you buy your milk in the supermarket or does a man on horse-drawn cart bring it each morning?
Anyway a boutique hotel in the Town Hall building would be a great employer and a positive boost for tourism. Building over the car park could produce many more letting rooms too. Perhaps even the bistro with rooms chain Hotel du Vin could be interested.

2/12/10 3:48 pm
Anonymous said...

The previous post is the funniest one I have read for some time! Hotel jobs are better than full time jobs in the Town Hall! Swanage will attract the sort of folk who want a boutique hotel!!?? More hotels! More restaurants! More jobs making beds for grockles!! More jobs waiting on tourists from Basingstoke!! More hotel space in a town with at best a six month 'season'!!!!!!!

Swanage was, and is, a bucket and spade holiday town. Poole is the place for 'boutique' hotels and bistros, not Swanage. Hotel du Vin are found in tourist mecca cities such as Bristol, Birmingham, Brighton, Harrogate, York...not flippin' Swanage!!!!!!! Might as well suggest they build one on Cromer, Margate or Bridlington. Swanage's 'high society site' is the Vista up at the muni!!!!

Bwaahaaahaaahaaahaaaaaaaa.....!!!!

2/12/10 4:15 pm
Nickthefish said...

Two prisoners look out through prison bars, one looks down into the mud, the other toward the stars.

2/12/10 4:36 pm
Anonymous said...

Before you bury Swanage let's remember someone wanted to build a marina here, Greenslade fish merchants wanted to relocate from Poole here, someone wanted to attract hen and stag parties to Zorb here, someone wanted to build on the rest home site opposite Ocean Bay and of course on the Pier Head, someone wanted to put a swimming pool in their garden to teach diving all year around, someone wanted to do white knuckle rides along the Jurassic Coast from the Quay, someone wanted to turn part of Prince Albert Gardens into a tea garden -plus scores of other harmless and economically attractive applications laid to rest by STC. Maybe it's time to think a bit more liberally towards our entrepreneurs ideas.

2/12/10 4:56 pm
Anonymous said...

Remember that it is PDC (not STC) who determine planning approvals.

2/12/10 5:03 pm
Anonymous said...

'Two prisoners look out through prison bars, one looks down into the mud, the other toward the stars.'

Yet still they are prisoners.

2/12/10 5:05 pm
Anonymous said...

Ask Mr Storer just how positive the burgers of PDC are toward entrepreneurs.

2/12/10 5:06 pm
Anonymous said...

Interesting that the Mowlem lease attracts more comment than the building of 900 houses. Weird lot aren't you?

2/12/10 9:48 pm
Anonymous said...

“Yet still they are prisoners”:
Yes perhaps like Nelson Mandela.

“Interesting that the Mowlem lease attracts more comment than the building of 900 houses”:
Yes, just like the wind farm, I think the silent majority find 900 houses quite acceptable. Saving and reinvigorating the Mowlem is much more important.

2/12/10 10:51 pm
Anonymous said...

I do wish posters were aware of the difference between the Mowlem and the restaurant. They are not the same thing.

2/12/10 11:02 pm
Anonymous said...

They are both in need of a rethink.

3/12/10 2:46 am
Anonymous said...

Actually the Mowlem restaurant would be a great space for the library, then the current library building could be a trendy wine bar.

3/12/10 9:34 am
Anonymous said...

They might well be in need of a rethink but the suggestion implies that there is some brain in each to do the thinking. Past experience suggests this may not be the case with one of them.

ingsfulk

3/12/10 9:59 am
Anonymous said...

Actually the Mowlem could be demolished and in its place could be built a small leisure centre overlooking the Bay. The Mowlem is,and always was, an eyesore. The average film presentation has no more than several dozen patrons.

Or one could be built on Mr Storer's Pier Head site, and give him the Mowlem to redevelop. Kill two carbuncles with one stone.

3/12/10 10:04 am
Anonymous said...

The chance of the Mowlem ever being demolished is minimal. The Town would never get the money toether to rebuild a similar facility. I thought we agreed in 2006 that all was required was a makeover:
http://www.rbstudio.co.uk/rbstudio/mowlem_swanage.html

3/12/10 11:27 am
Anonymous said...

Spending money on a 'makeover' for the carbuncle known as the Mowlem is like putting lipstick on a pig.

3/12/10 12:46 pm
Anonymous said...

12.46 i guess you like Poundbury then?

3/12/10 2:23 pm
Anonymous said...

I think for all its faults the Mowlem is a great asset to the Town. It is not architecturally out of keeping, despite the design faults, (like the lift doesn’t stop at the same floor as the disabled toilets), but a makeover would be of great help. However it is a lion led by donkeys.
In many ways it epitomises the decline of Swanage. George Willey does a great job supporting it in the paper but what a small percentage of local folk show up, even to the panto. Swanage can be great again but we need rich food and art snobs to get their friends together and come out and spend their cash.

3/12/10 2:34 pm
Anonymous said...

Spending money on a 'makeover' for the carbuncle known as the Mowlem is like putting lipstick on a pig.

12:46 PM


Anonymous said...
12.46 i guess you like Poundbury then?

2:23 PM

Don't you like Miss Piggy either ?

Shame on you..its what's inside that matters, why are there so many negative people on this site, no wonder Swanage needs bucking up!

3/12/10 5:35 pm
Anonymous said...

Remember that it is PDC (not STC) who determine planning approvals.

Not necessarily, its the people behind PDC and STC that help to determine planning approvals.

There is a joke at PDC. How many Swanage people does it take to change a lightbulb..none 'cause they wont change it.

A 'posh' hotel would be great for Swanage. Deter the second homes and encourage tourism, we live in a seaside resort, we just as well take advantage of one of the main ways to make a buck.

Stop blaming everyone else for Swanage's faults and get out there and do something about it. How many people turn up to STC/PDC/Core Stat meetings - very few! If people were really interested the meetings would be full. Great 2 meetings at Purbeck School recently over 400 people, and the people did help to change the councillors views. I'm fed up with people whinging, put your energy in trying to buck up this town. If you have any rich friends, invite them to move here and invest. There is no reason why Swanage shouldn't be the best town on the South Coast. Just do it !!!

3/12/10 5:42 pm
Anonymous said...

Beats my why anyone mentions the Town's money being spent on the Mowlem when the trustee's proudly boast that they make no claim on public money. Why don't posters go to the trouble of finding the facts before they make these remarks?

3/12/10 7:34 pm
Anonymous said...

'Great 2 meetings at Purbeck School recently over 400 people, and the people did help to change the councillors views.'

So these people turned up at that meeting, and yet their point was overruled by the adjudicator. Meanwhile those protesting wind farms have had their protest rebuffed (so it seems).

What is the point in turning up at meetings and making protesting in a civil fashion if the powers that be hold all the cards, and act according to their own decisions?

The 'system' creates only cynics. Name one decision made by PDC or DCC in the past year that is positive good news for Swanage?

7/12/10 12:22 pm
Anonymous said...

Funding for railway signaling perhaps.

7/12/10 1:21 pm
Anonymous said...

That scheme is so far off from helping Swanage as to be laughable. How could a commuter rail service to and from Swanage ever, ever pay for itself? W&D buses are usually half empty until Wareham. I just don'e see it happening, unless the government subsidizes it. Perhaps when the economy rights itself, something could happen. The only use for it would be to trundle the kiddies up to Purbeck School on a sort of Hogwarts Express. Other than that, no way is it economically viable enough to justify it happening. The days of 'pie in the sky' schemes are over.

7/12/10 5:28 pm
Anonymous said...

No, I cannot give any examples of non-subsidised transport that produce a surplus. But this is the point - and I know, because I use it - the W&D 40 service from Swanage to Poole is never anywhere near full, even at rush hour. Only when it transports kiddies to Wareham does it have even a respectable number of passengers.

So, based on that simple observation, what in God's green earth would cause any government to run an enormously expensive rail service that connects to the main line in under 10 miles?

Do you think for one minute THIS government would throw money at that proposal?????

The two old, polluting and inefficient locos DCC bought for this purpose will rust away......

8/12/10 6:01 pm
Anonymous said...

I have to agree. It is an assault on peoples intelligence to think that the extended line will be more than than an extension to the enthusiasts' train set.

8/12/10 8:58 pm
Anonymous said...

What strange comments. I was not aware the government was being asked to run a train service from Swanage to Wareham. Has anybody told Swanage railway about this as I kinda think they were thinking of running it themselves?

8/12/10 11:56 pm
Anonymous said...

They cannot run a profitable, reliable commuter service that will compete against W&D. Simple fact. If they try, they will run cap in hand for government money within a month. The majority of bus passengers have some form of travel concession - will SR recognise them?

It is an enthusiast's hobby. Much as I respect SR, they are not in the business of providing a commuter service.

If you disagree, sell shares in the trading side of SR to run this service - and prepare to risk your money, not the tax payer's, in this venture.

9/12/10 3:15 am
Anonymous said...

I think they can - I think they can -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn-LanIAV44

9/12/10 3:22 am
Anonymous said...

Any subsidy would be a beneficial input into the local economy. Sounds like a very good idea. The more the better. Its high time some government money came this way.

9/12/10 12:55 pm
Anonymous said...

There...is....no....government.......money!!!!!!!! It is our money!!!!!!

9/12/10 2:43 pm
Anonymous said...

The thought of paying quite a lot for a meal at the Mowlem reminds me of eating at a Joe Lyons cafe in the 1960s. Not a very pleasant experience. The building might suit a McDonalds.

11/12/10 2:10 pm

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)