Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com. By JOHN BURNETT ADVERTISING Tribune-Herald staff writer Once Hilo’s hottest nightspot, the former Shooters Bar and Grill has been shuttered for more than eight months. The restaurant and bar in the Country Club Condo Hotel
By JOHN BURNETT
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Once Hilo’s hottest nightspot, the former Shooters Bar and Grill has been shuttered for more than eight months.
The restaurant and bar in the Country Club Condo Hotel on Banyan Drive has been on the market since closing at the end of June, according to real estate broker Kevin K. Aoki of Property Professionals Hawaii, who’s also the Country Club’s property manager.
“We’ve had interest, but it’s a tough sell,” Aoki said last week. “It’s such a large space. There are a lot of people looking for restaurant facilities, but most of the people who are looking are not at the level to have that large a restaurant operation.”
The listing touts 4,608 square feet of floor space and another 210 square feet of balcony area, including a leasehold interest in a condominium unit. The asking price is $250,000 for a lease set to expire March 14, 2015, a little more than three years from now. The building is on state land leased to Country Club Hawaii Inc., whose principal is Herbert Arata. Any new tenant would lease from sublessee One Hawaii LLC, owned by Anthony Nakagawa. The Tribune-Herald was unable to contact Nakagawa.
Part of the operating cost is a common area maintenance fee of $7,700 a month.
“That includes the electric, water, sewer, all that,” Aoki said. “But if you have a restaurant that size, the electric bill alone, just figure how much that would be.”
Asked for the biggest selling points, Aoki replied: “The location and the size.”
“The biggest selling point to me is the size of the kitchen,” he said. “It does have a nice kitchen. Albeit, it’s a little old now, but everything was in working order when they shut down, all the equipment and everything in the unit.”
When the six-story Country Club was built in 1969, it was a Travelodge. Shooters was then called Voyager Restaurant. It became the Red Carpet when the hotel chain left and the hotel became condos. The restaurant and bar has also been known as Stratton’s and has had two incarnations as Shooters, wedged around a brief period as Hilo BBQ Shack.
Aoki acknowledged that the economy is another reason the formerly popular watering hole has experienced such a long dry spell.
“It’s sad to see so much area go to waste,” he said. “It’d be nice to get it filled and get more activity down in the Banyan Drive area.
“It’s a good location to get a liquor license because the nearest residential (building) is the Bayview Banyan, next door. See, the Country Club isn’t a residential building. It’s a hotel property.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
