Let’s nip this one in the bud: Jimmy Buffett isn’t buying Christie’s, and he’s not turning it into the next Margaritaville. In fact, he hasn’t even inquired.
Ever since the Newport restaurant was put on the market this spring, the gossip machine has been on overdrive, said Paul Hogan, of Hogan & Stone, the broker handling the sale. “Once or twice a week there’s a rumor out that it’s sold, and then I’ve got to let everyone know it’s not.”
What is true is that Christie’s is attracting a lot of attention.
“We’ve had 80 responses, which is about twice what I would’ve anticipated,” Hogan said. “I knew (Christie’s) was well-known, but … everyone in the world knows it. I mean, I get calls from Europe.” Even the original owner’s daughter called, from Florida.
Steve Christie opened Christie’s in 1945, moving from its original location in New York’s theater district. It’s Newport’s oldest waterfront restaurant, and a major operation, with six dining areas, three bars and a marina – indoor capacity of 350, plus another 150 outside.
Since the 1960s, Christie’s has been owned and run by the Crowley family, also owners of La Forge Casino. After the death of patriarch Michael F. Crowley last February, his nine children decided to sell the restaurant, Hogan said, so they could liquidate the estate.
As Newport hot spots go, Christie’s remains one of the hottest, drawing large crowds again this season. But as profitable as the business may be, Hogan acknowledged, it alone isn’t worth $12.5 million. The land and the docks, however, add a lot to the value.
Most of the inquiries so far, Hogan said, focus on that aspect of the property: “everything ranging from a fellow that was interested in ripping everything down and building a house there, to people who want to build a 30-, 40-story tower and do 100 condos on it.”
“At that price, you’ve got to do some more development there,” Hogan added. “So it has to be either someone who wants to stay in the restaurant business, or lease it to a restaurant, and then do retail or condominiums. Or you could do dockaminiums – that’s a hot product in Newport right now.” Christie’s has 842 linear feet of dock, he said.
Bill Greene, a principal at Hayes & Sherry, a commercial real estate firm that is not connected to the sale but handles major properties all across Rhode Island, said Christie’s alone is “a very hot commodity,” a “dramatically successful business” in a “world-class location.”
But “at the end of the day, you can’t separate out the business and the real estate; they’re one and the same thing,” Greene said. He agreed with Hogan that, as he put it, “there has to be a value-added component” to command $12.5 million, but also like Hogan, Greene identified both the docks and the land as major assets.
Docks at Stone Harbour, in Bristol, are selling for $60,000 to $80,000, Greene said, and a dock in Newport would be worth even more, at least $100,000. And luxury condos there, he added, could command $1 million or $2 million and attract plenty of buyers.
“Newport is an international market, so it’s beyond local, it’s beyond regional, it’s beyond national,” Greene said. Many Europeans love Newport, he said, and “these people have money to burn. They’d be very intrigued by a high-end condominium on Newport Harbor, with a view of the bridge.” The key factor, Greene said, is how densely the land could be developed. “If you have the ability to build up and out, then it can be very valuable.”
Asked whether he’s gotten any offers yet, Hogan said he has, but none good enough to accept.
Still, he said, the outlook is strong enough that he predicted a sale agreement “sometime between now and Labor Day.”
