Coral Gables gives beloved German beer hall 3-week deadline to strike lease deal

After an emotional meeting where dozens of people showed up in matching Fritz & Franz Bierhaus T-shirts to show support for Coral Gables’ beloved German beer hall, the City Commission voted Tuesday to allow a three-week deadline for the restaurant to strike a lease agreement with the city.

That’s a possible lifeline for a restaurant that’s been a mainstay in the City Beautiful for 25 years, drawing crowds for jazz festivals, World Cup tournaments and lively Oktoberfest celebrations. But if Fritz & Franz owner Harald Neuweg can’t reach a deal with the city by the next commission meeting on Feb. 13, Coral Gables will issue a request for proposal, or RFP, to find other potential tenants. The Fritz & Franz lease will end in May if it’s not granted a five-year renewal.

The city’s olive branch is an about-face from last year, when it said it would not renew the lease as it had done for decades after the lease began in 1999. The city’s asset manager, Zeida Sardinas, explained Tuesday that Fritz & Franz has failed to meet maintenance obligations or provide a satisfactory proposal “to address tenant improvements or the maintenance deficiencies.”

City Manager Peter Iglesias added that the city wrote off over $200,000 in unpaid rent for Fritz & Franz years ago and expressed opposition to the lease renewal.

“We are a fiduciary for the city,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, this is not going to happen. If the commission wishes for that to happen, the commission can go ahead and do it.”

Sardinas noted that Fritz & Franz does not currently owe the city any back rent.

Speaking at Tuesday’s meeting, Neuweg said he believes the city hasn’t acted in good faith and that it hasn’t given him the chance to negotiate a market-rate lease. He said he’s offered to pay the same rate as other tenants in the plaza where the restaurant is located, but that the city hasn’t budged.

“We would not be standing here today if the process would have been done the correct way from the city of Coral Gables,” he said Tuesday. “Why do you want to destroy a 20-year-old family restaurant?”

READ MORE: Is Coral Gables going to lose its beloved German beer hall? Here’s what we know

News of the restaurant’s potential closure spread on social media last month when Neuweg created a petition that gathered over 6,700 signatures. It also landed at a time when Coral Gables is facing increased scrutiny for the closures of several beloved restaurants that operated in city-owned buildings, including Burger Bob’s and Le Parc Cafe.

“Le Parc was mishandled. The country club was mishandled. Burger Bob’s was mishandled,” City Commissioner Ariel Fernandez said Tuesday. “And now we’re here mishandling Fritz & Franz. We didn’t learn from the first three, and we’re at number four.”

The friction escalated in early August when the city asked Fritz & Franz to provide a proposal about how it would comply with necessary tenant improvements and address maintenance deficiencies, according to Sardinas, the city’s asset manager. After the restaurant indicated that it didn’t intend to make changes, Sardinas said, the city sent a notice of non-renewal in late September.

Days later, in early October, Fritz & Franz responded by saying it would spend $180,000 on tenant improvements — a figure that Sardinas said was insufficient. For example, she said, the restaurant’s air conditioning units need to be replaced, which could cost $200,000 alone. Sardinas said Fritz & Franz’s proposal also asked that the city allow the restaurant to hold an 11-day Oktoberfest celebration and have soccer watch parties that would be exempt from the city’s noise ordinance.

Neuweg disagreed with the city’s claims about the amount of maintenance needed, saying there are no code violations or health violations. He added that he believes it’s unfair of the city to require him to make a major financial investment when it’s only willing to give him a five-year lease.

“There is nothing where the city can say, ‘If you don’t fix it, we’re going to put a code violation on it,’” he said. “No. There is nothing. It’s minor. It’s cracks in the floor.”

Neuweg said he is prepared to negotiate with the city so he can continue operating the kind of establishment where people can grab a burger and beer rather than a “white tablecloth, crystal chandelier restaurant.”

“I’m standing now before you not as an investor with a suit and tie or a bank account up to zillions of dollars,” he said, “but as a guy you will see when you go to Fritz & Franz Bierhaus on the stove behind the open kitchen.”

Miami Herald staff writer Connie Ogle contributed to this report.