A long-time popular restaurant house in the Norcross, Ga., train depot is closing its doors this weekend, according to WSB-AM.
The 15-year lease for Norcross Station Café expires at the end of the year, and the restaurant owner lost his bid for a new lease, the station reports. Owner Ken Weatherford is planning to re-open the restaurant in Berkley Lake as MacKenzie’s.
According to an October article in the Gwinnett Daily Post newspaper, the owner of Mojito’s Cuban American Bistro submitted a $7,553 per month bid to rent the former depot from the city. Norcross Station Café offered to pay $3,000 per month, $1,000 per month than the restaurant currently pays, the newspaper reporter.
City officials are bound by state law to accept the highest bid, CBS Atlanta reported in September.
“Council is being responsible stewards of the citizens that we represent,” the Gwinnett Daily Post quoted Norcross Mayor Bucky Johnson as saying. “If the tables had been turned and the current tenant had been the highest qualified bidder, then the city would have renewed his lease.”