Legacy Hills Grille Response
As many of you are now aware the operators of the Legacy Hills Grille have notified the Community Association (CA) that they will cease operations at the end of this year. We are all saddened by this news. The Grille has been in operation since the fall of 2015 and earned a faithful following of patrons.
The question on everyone’s mind is what the CA is going to do with that space – find another operator for the restaurant or use the space for something else. For those who want the answer to that question up front the answer is the CA will use this space for something other than a restaurant. For those that want more context around this decision – the how and the why - the following is provided in response to your input and views regarding elimination of a dining option in our community.
All three (3) of the restaurants ever operated at this location have not succeeded. The last time we sought a new operator for this space it was a long process and we only had one taker. The difficulty with this space for an operator is that bar and dining area is too small. The dining space at this location is roughly 1,500 sq. ft. which limits the number of tables, which limits the number of “turns” at a seating and in Sun City Texas we tend to dine early which further limits “turns” all of which directly correlates to an operator’s profitability.
An operator of one of our community’s restaurant is charged a very modest $1500 - $1600 a month for the right to operate the restaurant for a profit. The operator in this arrangement does not have to pay for a mortgage, the construction of a facility or for the loans on the necessary kitchen and other equipment. Your CA pays for all the utilities, replacement of all kitchen equipment (via the “Reserve” fund), and property taxes and insurance to name a few items. With these very large and distinct advantages an restaurant operation will struggle to manage a profit due to the size of this facility or more simply put – it is a lot of work by an operator for the opportunity of very little return.
Note - The monthly charge collected from the operator generally covers the cost of utilities for the facility and the total cost to the community for all the restaurant subsidies (most of them mentioned above) exceeds $200,000 per year.
In the not too distant future, we will be surrounded by new neighborhoods and the restaurants and other goods and services that accompany this growth would put additional pressure on the viability of a small “on premises” restaurant. Other dining options (snack bar, 19th hole, etc.) for this location would simply increase the subsidy from the CA. This kind of data and information guides us to a decision to use this facility as community space – not a restaurant.
The bottom line is this location is a tough “sell” for a restaurant for all of the reasons provided but it is an easy fix for a community activity space that also allows for rather substantial “Reserve Fund” savings (with the elimination or reuse of some or all of the kitchen equipment).
We are aware this is not a decision some of you want to hear but with the information and data we have a restaurant simply does not present itself as a viable or reasonable option for our community near term or long term.
Thank you,
Sun City Texas Board of Directors
