Mick Kelly’s Pub looks for new Kent location

Mick Kelly’s Irish Pub & Restaurant soon could be opening at a new location in town after its lease with the city of Kent expires on Tuesday at the Riverbend Golf Complex.

A recent meeting with Mayor Suzette Cooke didn’t lead to any last-minute solutions to keep the restaurant operating at the city-owned golf course along West Meeker Street.

“I have a letter of intent with a local building owner,” said Mick Purdy, the owner of the pub, during a Monday phone interview. “We need to flush out the fine points of the lease. I think we’ll be ready to announce something in the next week or so.”

City staff notified Purdy earlier this year that Kent won’t extend the five-year lease because he is behind in lease and utility payments to the city, which led to a breach of the contract. Purdy said he tried to work out a compromise with city staff as well as the mayor over the debt but no agreement could be reached.

The restaurant owed $78,336 to the city in delinquent lease and utilities as of May 30, according to Parks Director Jeff Watling, who helps oversee city facilities. Watling said the breach of contract started in April 2011 when the restaurant fell behind in payments.

Purdy disputed the utility payments where the restaurant covered 66 percent of the bills that also included the 18-hole clubhouse. He argued because there is no separate meter for how much of the utilities the restaurant actual uses that the cost was too high.

During his meeting with Cooke and other city staff, Purdy said he presented a couple of water bills he found from before the restaurant opened in 2010 that he believed indicated the restaurant paid too much for water, possibly as much as $30,000 to $35,000 too much.

“But the mayor decided to stick with the decision of the parks department (to end the lease),” Purdy said.

Watling said city staff had spent a lot of time working with Purdy to come up with a plan to cure the breach but no agreement could be reached to satisfy both sides.

City staff began a transition plan for the restaurant earlier this year after notifying Mick Kelly’s its lease wouldn’t be extended. The city hired Kirkland-based Restaurant Group, Inc., as a consultant to look at the restaurant model at Riverbend and help determine whether the space should be resized to better fit the needs of a long-term tenant with an interior modification.

The consultant contract will cost the city $20,850, with the goal of new negotiated lease by late fall, Watling said. The consultant will market the property to help find a new operator and receive $15,000 of the fee when a new lease agreement is reached. A concessionaire is scheduled to operate a portable grill on the restaurant patio this summer and fall so golfers still have access to food until a new restaurant opens.

Meanwhile, Mick Kelly’s looks to find a new landlord.

“We’d like to stay in Kent,” Purdy said. “We have a lot of clients and customers we enjoy working with. We want them to know where we are going to be.”