The Kenai City Council entered into an amended restaurant concession agreement at the Kenai Municipal Airport with Brothers Café.
Brothers Café is experiencing a continued decrease in their business primarily due to the substantial reduction in the numbers of the traveling public as a result of the RAVN Alaska bankruptcy and the COVID-19 pandemic. They request continued rent relief for the months of August 2020 through June 2021, when their contract with the City is eligible for renewal.
Section 1 of Resolution 2020-94 states that the City Manager is authorized to execute an amendment to the concession contract with the Brothers’ Café to amend the monthly percentage fee they pay to the City in a range from 0% to 10% of the gross receipts plus applicable sales tax till June 2021 based on a review of the gross receipts as reported monthly by Brothers Café, in compliance with applicable FAA requirements.
Councilwoman Teea Winger spoke in support of the resolution. She said, “I, too, have had a restaurant inside the airport many years ago. I am familiar with the ins and outs of running that. I couldn’t imagine being in their position with a pandemic when people aren’t traveling. The bulk of our business really was the layovers and the delayed flights. Also having RAVN’s exit, I know, has really hurt them. We definitely need to try and get the traffic going into the Kenai Airport and getting them to go in and support the restaurant. I don’t know if they are going to have any ease in business, but definitely just from running a business in that airport, it can be really difficult and really tough. This is something I support and we should all be supporting them in their business.”
The Café has been impacted by several events outside of their control, initially by the Airport Terminal Rehabilitation Project, and more recently by theCOVID-19 pandemic and accompanying decrease in the number of traveling public exacerbated by the RAVN bankruptcy.
In August 2018, Council passed Resolution 2018-42 authorizing the City Manager to enter into a restaurant concession agreement with the Brothers’ Café for a two-year term with an opportunity to extend for three successive one-year terms. They have been operating out of the Kenai Municipal Airport since that time. The original agreement anticipated that the Café would pay 5% of their monthly gross receipts over the first several months of the Agreement and 10% of monthly gross receipts over the remaining term of the Agreement.
The resolution is retroactive to payments due in August 2020 and took effect immediately upon adoption. It unanimously passed.
