Cafe and Caterer Taking Bigger Downtown St. Louis Space
Date Posted: April 30, 2024
Posted In: News,
From St. Louis Business Journal: Ukraft Cafe and Catering will relocate to a larger space in downtown St. Louis, a move set to both triple its physical footprint and provide a hefty boost to its top line.
Co-owners and brothers Matt and Mike Ratz signed a 10-year lease for 6,000 square feet within Peabody Plaza, directly across the street from Kiener Plaza on the east side of the building, with plans to open by early July. Ukraft’s current downtown location opened in 2021 and is in a 2,000-square-foot space on the Citygarden Sculpture Park, or west, side of Peabody Plaza.
Matt Ratz declined to comment on terms of the company’s lease, but the average retail lease rate in the city of St. Louis was $9.73 per square foot as of last year’s fourth quarter, according to Cushman and Wakefield.
The restaurant has been in a “weird position” for the last year or so, having both completely outgrown its current space and actively tried to limit its business, Matt Ratz said. He knew it was time to find a new space but also didn’t want to leave Peabody Plaza, which is in what Ratz called downtown’s “healthiest area.”
Ratz and his brother had ongoing conversations with Briar Meads Capital, the New York-based real estate investment management company that acquired Peabody Plaza for $35 million in 2020, about securing Ukraft’s new space for about a year: “We just got very lucky that this spot was open,” he said.