Michael Deane closes Lisburn Road venue over rent hikes
Top restaurateur Michael Deane has announced the decision not to renew the lease at one of his popular venues, blaming unsustainable rent rises
Deane and Decano on the Lisburn Road was one of the restaurateur’s five locations across the city and was a “buzzing bistro and bar” that had a “distinctly Italian flavour”.
The decision to close the South Belfast venue came after an unsustainable price rise that encouraged him to “reimagine and reshape” the business.
The business intends to expand the current city centre locations to reflect changing customer demands across the hospitality industry, according to the Belfast Telegraph.
Michael Deane said: “Throughout our past 26 years in business in Belfast we have had to be agile in our response to the demands of our customers and to market influences.
“Thankfully this has underpinned the sustainability and success of our business throughout all that time.
“Right now the circumstances require progressive thinking and decisiveness: and so, we have come to the conclusion that it’s in the best interests of the continued success of the business not to renew this lease on the Lisburn Road and focus our energies on further developing the dining experience at our Howard Street premises in the city centre as well as our restaurant and Bar, Deanes At Queens in the University Quarter.”
“When we took the wee place on, rent was going to be £42,000 and I think I got it for about £25,000. At the first rent review, it went up to £30,000. and then the landlord wanted £50,000 for it, with a bit of negotiation up or down.
“We’ve had a £6,000 rate increase on the Lisburn Road, it’s absolutely nuts. The new lease would have been five years, but given that my company is carrying an extra £50,000 a month energy costs, the minimum wage going up means we’re carrying £200,000 extra on the pay roll, then the price of staff, the lack of staff, I think the best decision was to consolidate it and the time had come to close the door.”
All Deane and Decano staff have been offered positions across the business’s four remaining venues – Deanes Meatlocker, Deanes Loves Fish, Deanes EIPIC and Deanes at Queen’s.
