The Cockpit Café at Sanford Seacoast Regional Airport is expected to close when the lease expires on Dec. 31. TAMMY WELLS/Journal Tribune
SANFORD — The popular Cockpit Café is scheduled to close its doors at Sanford Seacoast Regional Airport on Dec. 31 after a 30-year run.
Citing sporadic operation — abrupt closures on some days the restaurant was supposed to be open — the city, which owns the airport property where the restaurant is located, said it would enforce the terms of the current lease, which expires at the end of the year, and not offer another.
Cockpit Café owner Rene Bernier had been negotiating with the city for several months for a new lease that was scheduled to commence on Jan. 1, but as December arrived, the time remaining for renewal and subsequent approval by the City Council began to dwindle, said Sanford Seacoast Regional Airport Manager Alison Rogers.
The lease for the space occupied by the Cockpit Café at Sanford Seacoast Regional Airport expires Dec. 31 and the city, citing erratic operation which conflicts with the terms of current lease, has elected not to offer another. Restaurant owner Rene Bernier is shown here in the is 2017 file photo. TAMMY WELLS/Journal Tribune
The City Council’s property subcommittee discussed the matter on Dec. 11 and indicated that unscheduled closures in the latter part of the year meant that Bernier was not living up to the terms of her current lease.
Bernier received a certified letter on Monday that stated her current lease would expire and that the city would not be offering another.
“I guess I just have to forfeit it over and know I won’t get anywhere with the city,” said Bernier in a brief interview on Wednesday. “I thought it was all set.”
“The Cockpit Café has been operating erratically for several months,” the letter signed by City Manager Steve Buck said, in part. “Multiple times the restaurant has closed early or not opened at all. The last week of November 2018 it was closed three days out of seven of the week, without any notice or explanation. This is not the only instance, but the most recent.”
The letter goes on to point out that the restaurant was closed “indefinitely,” because of staffing issues, according to an email Bernier wrote on Dec, 1.
She did open that Friday Dec. 7 and was open through the following Monday. The restaurant was closed again Tuesday Dec. 11, with notice.
“The restaurant has demonstrated an inability to operate on a consistent basis and fulfill the terms of its existing lease agreement,” Buck said, referring to the specific hours of operation in the current lease. “For this reason, the city is unable to continue with its offer for a new lease agreement.”
The city had sent Bernier a notice in October that the current lease would expire at the end of the year and at the time, was negotiating with her for a new agreement.
A new, five-year lease was proposed, with a built-in five-year extension. It would have required the restaurant to be open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekends during the summer — it currently closes at noon on weekends year around — and to accept debit and credit cards.
It also carried a rent increase, the first in five years, Rogers said, which was tied to the consumer price index.
The increase, estimated at under under 5 percent, is the same for all of the city’s airport tenants, she said.
The latest negotiation stems from a third request for proposals for the Sanford-owned restaurant property. The first two were handled by the Airport Advisory Committee, but the council’s property subcommittee dealt with the latest proposal. In all three, Bernier submitted the sole proposal.
Rogers said the last time there was any conversation about a new lease with Bernier was on Oct. 25, when Bernier said she wanted her attorney to review it. Then, on Dec. 7, Bernier told her she was ready to sign it “whenever,” Rogers told councilors at the subcommittee meeting. She said she told Bernier the matter was in the council’s hands.
The Cockpit Café has been a landmark at the airport for nearly 30 years and began as Rudy’s Cockpit Café. Bernier has been associated with the business for 28 years and has been the owner since 2003. Inside, the walls sport flying memorabilia. It sports a considerable amount of military memorabilia as well, some harkening to the World War II days when the airport was a part of the Brunswick Naval Air Station.
On Wednesday, Bernier said that when she was negotiating with the city last year, which ultimately resulted in a one-year extension of the present lease, she had contemplated opening a restaurant elsewhere.
“I thought about relocating last year,” she said. “But I won’t open up again.”
The Cockpit Café will be open regular hours until Dec. 31, Bernier said, with the exception of the Christmas holiday, when the restaurant will close at noon on Christmas Eve, rather than 2 p.m.
The city is expected to seek requests for proposals for an airport restaurant operator in the new year.
— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 780-9016 or twells@journaltribune.com.
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