The “legendary” Bewley’s Café on Dublin’s Grafton Street has had its annual rent cut in half following a ruling at the Circuit Court.
Judge Jennifer O’Brien ruled that Bewley’s Café should have to pay a rent of more than €738,000 per year to its landlord, developer Johnny Ronan.
This is a 50% drop in the €1.46 million that was originally being paid.
The court found this fairly represented what a willing tenant would pay and a willing landlord would take for the premises as of August 2022 over a five-year lease term.
An order was already made in June of this year, stating that Bewley’s was entitled to a new tenancy at the famous building on Grafton Street.
The issue of the rent to be paid was before Judge O’Brien, who quoted the words of James Joyce stating that the premises was a “legendary, lofty, clattery café”, imbued with conversation and memories.
In her judgment, she said the court was satisfied that the method of valuation put forward by the plaintiff Bewley’s expert was of industry standard when assessing the valuation of the premises.
The landlord RGRE Grafton Ltd, a company of the developer Johnny Ronan, filed a defence which had denied that the plaintiff had made improvements to the property or that any such improvements increased its letting value.
It found that while Bewley’s is a restaurant, its location and the valuation of the building itself are heavily influenced by the surrounding retail on Grafton Street.
The determined level of rent is for a five-year period.
It was determined at a level of €144 per square foot at ground level, without adjustment for rental improvements.
Welcoming the judgment, Bewley’s Managing Director Cól Campbell said he was happy the judge had acknowledged the significance of Bewley’s which he said gave the café a “fantastic shot” to do something with the premises.
“I’m so very happy to put all this behind us and we’ve finally got a market rent, which is all we’ve wanted for 17 years,” he told RTÉ News.
He said for all of Dublin, it was a great victory.
The court assessed the gross rent at the date of valuation to be €703,018.80 a year.
The court agreed with the defendant, RGRE Grafton Ltd, that an uplift of 5% be applied to that figure, bringing the full rent to be paid to €738,169.74
The court made no order as to costs, with each party set to pay its own legal costs.
Bewley’s say their legal costs have amounted to €400,000.
Cól Campbell said: “The judge has said each party will bear their own costs.”
The terms of the lease will be determined at a further court hearing.
