Thursday, September 19, 2019

[Déjà vu?] Both Watershed on Peachtree and Saltyard For Sale

The owners of both Watershed on Peachtree and Saltyard have put their respective restaurants up for sale.  Both restaurants are located in the street level retail of The Brookwood, a luxury condo high-rise at 1820 Peachtree Street in Brookwood Hills.  Each restaurant changed hands in 2018 when chef Matt Marcus purchased Watershed from original owners Emily Saliers (of the Grammy award-winning folk rock group Indigo Girls) and Ross Jones, and Lee Schulman of the Old Vinings Inn purchased Saltyard from its original owner, chef Nick Leahy.  Leahy opened Saltyard in 2013 with business partners Christian and Kristy Favalli.  Leahy became sole owner of Saltyard in 2017.
The Shumacher Group, an Atlanta-based real estate brokerage, is representing both restaurateurs  in their efforts to sell their respective restaurants.  The sales listing from broker Steve Josovitz describes the opportunity to "keep or convert" the Saltyard restaurant, whereas any new owner of Watershed would need to convert, it as the restaurant's name, menu, books and records are not included in the sale.

Schulman, who already owned the Old Vinings Inn in Vinings, did not make any drastic changes at Saltyard. Chris Lee, the executive chef at Old Vinings Inn, acted as corporate chef, and provided kitchen guidance for the two restaurants, with the menu similar to Leahy’s.  

Unlike Saltyard, Watershed was an existing restaurant before opening at The Brookwood.  The original Watershed opened along West Ponce de Leon Avenue in Decatur in 1999, but moved to Brookwood Hills in 2012. [The original Watershed reopened as Indian eatery Chai Pani in 2013.] 
When Marcus, formerly of Portofino and Woodfire Grill, purchased Watershed, then chef Zeb Stevenson departed. [Stevenson along with Ross Jones opened Redbird at Westside Provisions District last month.] Marcus took the restaurant in a different direction, introducing several new menu items, the most eye-catching of which was the $350 plate of house-cut French fries with sea salt, served with a bottle of Krug Brut Rosé.  

5,200 square foot Watershed features inside seating for 150, bar seating for 35, and an outdoor patio that can seat as many as 65, for a total restaurant capacity of 250.  The restaurant is locked into a long-term lease with options to renew.  The listing indicates that "all in" rent on the Watershed space is $17,500.

Watershed is priced at $250,000.

Saltyard and its 3,500 square feet feature an exhibition kitchen, full bar, interior seating for 100, plus an outdoor patio courtyard that seats an additional 24.  Nine years remain on the restaurant's existing lease with options to renew.  Currently, the restaurant pays approximately $13,500 monthly for rent, CAM, tax and insurance. 

Saltyard is priced at $225,000, with owner financing options.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Lord....restaurants just can't stay in business in Atlanta. Hate so see so much effort put into failing ventures.

Anonymous said...

Being a cynic... your move bikers. You want a bike friendly / share the road system, here’s your chance to have a restaurant place to call your own within the city. Locals aren’t touching this, and neither will car traffic during peak hours.

CloseOTP said...

@Anon @ 3:17PM - Plenty of restaurants are doing fantastically. However, I do think Atlanta is starting to get over-saturated. With all the development along the Beltline, all the food halls, etc., there's only so many people and so many dining dollars. I've lived in Atlanta for 25 years and I remember I used to keep a mental list of the restaurants I wanted to try. That's impossible nowadays because there are just so many restaurants opening all the time (or maybe it's because I'm 25 years older). I think many of the failure are due to people who just think "I can open a restaurant and people will come." There's clearly much more to it.

fbenario said...

"I think many of the failure (sic) are due to people who just think "I can open a restaurant and people will come."

Both purchasers here had long experience with restaurants, so who was your comment aimed at?

Anonymous said...

Watershed selling what for $250k? Used equipment and an overpriced lease? You have to be kidding..........
Any prospective purchaser should just let the current owner be evicted, then negotiate a lower priced lease, buy equipment and furnishings for much less than $250K and make a go of it.
Same for Saltyard...

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