Tony Bertig and Jay & David Costas don’t want to leave anything to chance. Even though they still have a year left on their current lease for their popular Silver Beach Pizza operation inside the Amtrak station below the bluff in St. Joseph, they’re asking their landlords — the City of St. Joseph — to approve their next seven year extension to keep slinging pizzas into the year 2025.
The red hot property has seen amazing growth and expansion since first opening nearly 11 years ago, and Bertig and the Costas family want to keep the magic alive for years to come. Their request to continue beyond their current lease term of June 30, 2018 is on the St. Joseph City Commission consent agenda this evening.
When Silver Beach Pizza, operated by Valpo Pizza, Inc, opened up shop in March of 2005, the initial term of the lease ran through June 30, 2008, and was renewable for two five year terms, beginning July 1st of 2008 and again in 2013. They are now into their final year of the second extension.
However, as part of an October 2006 lease amendment, Silver Beach Pizza received the right to exercise two additional seven year terms because of the extensive enhancements and expansions made to the facility. Bertig dispatched a letter last spring to the city saying, “Although this letter may be a little premature, we at Valpo Pizza, Inc. d/b/a Silver Beach Pizza certainly would like to formally exercise the first seven year option to the lease.” He added, later in the letter, “Hopefully, at the completion of our 19th year, we will again be requesting a renewal of the remaining seven year option. We are hopeful that people still will like us in seven years.”
If authorized by city officials tonight, the new term would begin on July 1, 2018 and end on June 30, 2025, with another 7-year option beyond that.
City Manager John Hodgson says that under the terms of the lease, the rent for the property increases each year, based on the Consumer Price Index, and at the time each option is exercised each party can negotiate a new amount of rent for the first year of the option, however the new amount cannot be less than the current rent and cannot increase more than 10-percent.
Over the life span of the restaurant, the Silver Beach crew has expanded on several occasions including a kitchen expansion, construction of a new Amtrak waiting room, established a second kitchen for take-out, added to the patio area with roll-up doors, and built the upper deck and elevator system.
Silver Beach Pizza has offered to pay the maximum increase of 10-percent once again. Unless something goes seriously awry, the deal should be signed and sealed before the night is over, and we can all continue to enjoy the Silver Beach Pizza brand well into the future.
