Brixton's Kaff Bar to close in July, as landlords triple the rent

[editor]

I am so pissed off about this. Gentrification strikes again.

Read the full story here.
http://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2015/06/kaff-bar-in-brixton-to-close-as-landlords-triple-rent/

 

[Belushi]

Triple?! FFS

 

[leanderman]

Who is the landlord? Billy Ocean?

He is said to own much of that strip of Atlantic rd.

 

[ViolentPanda]

You can just bet that some posters will defend the landlord's right to sweat their asset.

 

[brixtonblade]

Sad news... hope they find another place they can rent.

 

[Greebo]

No - WTF?

 

[editor]

The guy built this up from nothing. Every bar/restaurant had failed on that site before, and he was there every day there for years making a success of the place. It makes me so fucking angry.

 

[BigMoaner]

36 pager

 

[editor]

Sad news... hope they find another place they can rent.

There's almost no chance of that happening. It's all well heeled "independents", well connected crowdfunders and corporate cash buying up the rents now.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Triple?! FFS

Problem is that unless a business has a long lease (and few do,nowadays), you've got absolutely no protection legislatively to stop your landlord tripling,quadrupling or quintupling your rent if they think the traffic will bear it.

 

[brixtonblade]

There's almost no chance of that happening. It's all well heeled "independents", well connected crowdfunders and corporate cash buying up the rents now.

Any chance the landlord is just chancing his arm? Seems a massive hike - is anyone going to want to pay that?

I'll miss their cabbage :-(

 

[sleaterkinney]

It used to be a struggle to get a new place going in brixton not so long ago, now it's triple the rent?

 

[Thimble Queen]

What a load of old shite

 

[ViolentPanda]

There's almost no chance of that happening. It's all well heeled "independents", well connected crowdfunders and corporate cash buying up the rents now.

Tsk. The usual suspects will take you to task over that "crowdfunding" reference, and say it's anti-New Zealand prejudice.

 

[ViolentPanda]

36 pager

It should be a long thread. There shouldbe some record of how people feel.

 

[BigMoaner]

I liked the place.

Trippled? What on earth could generate that sort of revenue?????

 

[editor]

Any chance the landlord is just chancing his arm? Seems a massive hike - is anyone going to want to pay that?

I'll miss their cabbage :-(

No - I've got a (very long!) follow up piece from the manager at Kaff which explains that this has happened after a long fight by him to stay there. I'll publish it tomorrow.

 

[editor]

Any chance the landlord is just chancing his arm? Seems a massive hike - is anyone going to want to pay that?

I'll miss their cabbage :-(

The manager has made a huge success of the place - it's even packed on a Monday night - and with Brixton's new demographic being able to afford much higher prices than what's he's charging, I'm sure a chain/trendy independent will be along soon to cash in.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Any chance the landlord is just chancing his arm? Seems a massive hike - is anyone going to want to pay that?

I'll miss their cabbage :-(

Problem is, it's not difficult for a landlord to check out the current rental yield for similar commercial properties, and think "I'm going to chance my arm". What a lot of them don't ponder is that it's best to have a steady lower income than a patchy higher income, a lot of the time.

 

[BigMoaner]

Nailed on some rustic artisan craft pop up bar or something.

 

[BigMoaner]

So what ever it'll be will need three times the revenue of the kaff. Waitrose???

 

[cuppa tee]

So what ever it'll be will need three times the revenue of the kaff. Waitrose???

Not if the new leaseholders are trustafarians who are just doing it to fill in time "til they cop for the family fortune.

 

[Tricky Skills]

1'35" in:

"Because we're bringing investment and money into this place, we're partly to blame. But I think this is a good thing."

 

[Smick]

Problem is, it's not difficult for a landlord to check out the current rental yield for similar commercial properties, and think "I'm going to chance my arm". What a lot of them don't ponder is that it's best to have a steady lower income than a patchy higher income, a lot of the time.

Not if you are doing pop up shite. Burgers for two weeks, then some prick from the Home Counties who thinks his two week holiday in Cancun positions him ideally to do Mexican street food, then home made Christmas decorations in the run up to December. God, I hate pop ups.

 

[T & P]

That's a damn disgrace, and shameless landlord profiteering and greed at its worst.

 

[editor]

It's like everything I liked about Brixton is slowly getting squeezed out and replaced with characterless, here-today-gone-tomorrow fluff and ruthless cash-in merchants. It's so depressing.

 

[cuppa tee]

can you name the landlord editor ?
this smells of golfrate as CH1 said elsewhere ?

 

[editor]

can you name the landlord editor ?
this smells of golfrate as CH1 said elsewhere ?

I believe it was a consortium of three landlords, not the extra evil Golfrate.

 

[leanderman]

The landlords should be named and shamed.

Their ownership of the building is a matter of public record.

 

[Kevs]

Such bad news. Love kaff. I hope they find a new place if this happens.