Metro Vancouver Restaurant News thread

[whatnext]

Bad times to be trying to sell a restaurant apparently. Though owning The Raven would be pretty cool.

Many restaurants now selling for half their pre-pandemic value
B.C. restaurants face a buyer’s market as owners eye an exit
Brigitte Petersen, Western Investor
41 minutes ago

BC’s restaurant sector continues to grapple with post-pandemic challenges, but opportunities abound for buyers.

Chris van Vliet, William Wright Commercial’s Langley office team leader, said the last time he checked there were 124 restaurants for sale in Vancouver and hundreds available in B.C. According to Spacelist.ca, about 500 commercial spaces, including restaurants, were listed in mid-September.

The Raven, a pub in Deep Cove owned by IRL Group, was recently listed for $488,000.

“It’s the only pub in the Deep Cove community,” said van Vliet. “It’s very well-established.”

Opened in 1979, the fully renovated 6,081-square-foot establishment nets about $200,000 in annual profits....

....“Where we used to be able to sell a restaurant for a certain price, now what the sellers are competing with are restaurants that are just simply for lease,” said van Vliet.

This has created a buyer’s market for restaurants, van Vliet said, with many in prime locations available at favourable prices, largely due to bankruptcies. In February, Restaurants Canada reported 62 per cent of restaurants were operating at a loss or barely breaking even, compared with 10 per cent pre-pandemic. Last year saw a notable upsurge in closures, with bankruptcies up 44 per cent....

https://www.biv.com/news/real-estate/man...or-half-their-pre-pandemic-value-9613847