Piva Modern Italian Restaurant and Wine Bar will be serving up food and vino in Anvil Centre in 2017.
The city has given notice that it intends to lease a 3,500 square foot portion of Anvil Centre to Amur Financial Group for the purpose of operating a full-service licensed restaurant and bar and providing catering services.
“The concept for the restaurant that is leasing up at the Anvil Centre is going to be a modern Italian restaurant and wine bar. It will be an independent restaurant in that it’s not a chain restaurant that is moving in there,” Mayor Jonathan Cote told the Record. “We think the concept that they proposed to the city actually aligns very well with the goals that city was hoping to achieve in the Anvil Centre and even in the downtown neighbourhood.”
According to Cote, Piva’s concept is “farm fresh modern Italian” in an upscale dining environment. He said it will focus on Italian and B.C. wines and the menu will include house-made pasta and wood-fired pizza and steaks.
In addition to paying taxes for the space and a portion of the building’s operating costs, the notice of lease of property states the restaurant would have a 10-year lease, during which time it would pay rent of $70,000 annually for years one to three, $110,250 for years four and five and $119,000 for years six to 10.
Truffles Fine Foods, which opened a café in Anvil Centre in early 2015, received a catering contract from Anvil Cetnre. While the notice of lease refers to the provision of catering services, Cote said it’s not for Anvil Centre.
“I think the restaurant is wanting to be able to do their own catering service that they themselves see as another revenue opportunity,” he said. “It’s actually not connected to the catering service at the city.”
Long before Anvil Centre’s opening in September 2014, the city had indicated a desire to have a restaurant open in the prime space at the corner of Columbia and Eighth streets. The lease with Piva is expected to begin about May 1, 2017, after a six-month period to ready the space for restaurant use.
“It’s been very well known that the city has actively been trying to find a good fit and lease out that restaurant space. We have had leasing agents out there trying to generate interest in the site,” Cote said of the agreement with the Amur Financial Group Inc. “There’s been a number of different restaurants that have expressed interest and even developed preliminary proposals with the city over the past year. This was one that has been in the mix and it’s one the city felt comfortable moving ahead with.”
Earlier this year, the Stonewater Group announced it hoped to open a Mr. Mikes Steakhouse Casual in the space and stated it had agreed to terms with the city to enter into a formal lease for the restaurant space in Anvil Centre. In April, Cote told the Record the city hadn’t signed an agreement with a restaurant and had an expectation of seeing a higher-end restaurant open in Anvil Centre.
The city’s draft 2017 capital budget includes $395,000 for costs associated with tenant allowances, real estate fees and landlord work tht is required to be completed prior to the tenant occupancy.
Coun. Chuck Puchmayr wishes the restaurant well and believes it will be good for Anvil Centre and the downtown but has concerns about the process. He said the Stonewater Group was prepared to lease the space, which has continued to sit empty.
“I think they will do well, he said of Piva. “My concern is with the process, not the restaurant.”
