The building where Humphrey’s on the Delta restaurant was located at 1 Marina Plaza, foot of L Street in Antioch. Herald file photo by salliegoetsch.com
By Allen Payton
Rumors circulating through Antioch this week, that Zephyr Grill & Bar will open a third location at the former site of Humphrey’s on the Delta, were somewhat confirmed Thursday night by Lizeht Zepeda, the city’s Economic Development Manager.
Asked if the rumors were true, Zepeda responded, “It’s an item on the November 14th council meeting, staff report should be posted on the website.”
However, the agenda including the staff report had yet to be posted on the City’s website as of publication time, Thursday night.
Zephyr Grill & Bar’s two other locations, in Brentwood at 613 1st Street and in Livermore at 1736 1st Street, have menu items which are hard to find at restaurants in East County, including free-range chicken, grass-fed beef and wild-caught fish. See more photos and information about their food on their Facebook page, here. The owners of Zephyr recently sold a third location in Seattle.
The city currently owns the building as well as the land, located at the Antioch Marina with the address of 1 Marina Plaza, and has been seeking a buyer or tenant since the former restaurant closed for business on December 24, 2012.
11/10/17 UPDATE: The transaction the Antioch City Council will be considering is the sale of the building and land for $1.2 million to Sean McCauley Investments, Inc. (SMI), a Brentwood-based business which owns other real estate in East County including the old Casino Building at Waldie Plaza in Antioch’s downtown, Rivertown District. It is item #4 on the council’s agenda. ACC mtg agenda 111417 – Humphrey’s sale Item #4
According to the staff report on the agenda item, “SMI has invested millions of dollars in development and revitalization of several blighted buildings, bringing additional businesses and entrepreneurs into downtown and other areas of Antioch.”
The staff report further explains SMI’s plans, which are a joint effort with the owners of Zephyr Grill & Bar, Randy and Lynn Tei.
“In an effort to bring the site back to a working restaurant, SMI submitted to the City a signed Letter Of Intent (LOI) between SMI and a restaurant operator for the site. The LOI (Attachment C) describes the operator lease terms, and scope of work between SMI and Randy Tei and his wife Lynn Tei, DBA RLW Properties (RLW) for the operation of a Zephyr Grill & Bar restaurant at One Marina Plaza. SMI will be doing extensive repairs and improvements to deliver a “vanilla shell” to the tenant, RLW. Once the PSA is executed the estimated timeframe for SMI’s delivery of improvements is about two months to complete. Additional work, kitchen and interior design will be made by the tenant after SMI completes their work.”
“RLW has over 30 years of experience in the restaurant industry. They currently own and operate two restaurants in the Bay Area, Zephyr Grill & Bar in Brentwood and Zephyr Grill & Bar in Livermore; Ca. RLW is committed to revitalizing the site and operating an elegant upscale restaurant. SMI was instrumental in RLW’s decision to launch this endeavor in the Rivertown District of Antioch. This will be their 3rd location in the Bay Area. They look forward to operating this 3rd restaurant for many years to come in Downtown Rivertown Antioch.”
However, according to Sean McCauley, owner of SMI, if the Tei’s become the tenant then it will have a different name than Zephyr Grill & Bar, so as not to compete with their Brentwood location.
“This has been in negotiation for over a year,” he said.
The purchase includes the land, as well as the building, McCauley explained. He estimates there will be about $1 million of tenant improvements needed for the restaurant to open.
The address of the restaurant may also change as the city has plans to rename L Street to something with Marina in the name such as Marina Way or Blvd. The new address would then be 1 Marina Way or Blvd., making it easier for people to find the restaurant from Highway 4.
The council meeting is at 7:00 p.m. in the Antioch Council Chambers at 200 H Street in historic, downtown Rivertown. You can also watch the meeting live on local cable channel 24 or via livestream on the city’s website at http://www.ci.antioch.ca.us/CityGov/citycouncilmeetings.htm.
ORDER EARLY ~ ONLY 50 MEALS AVAILABLE
