Broad Ripple restaurant assets to be auctioned

The owners of The Corner, a now-defunct restaurant at the corner of Guilford Avenue and Westfield Boulevard in the heart of Broad Ripple, are hoping to unload the business’s assets at auction next month.

Indianapolis-based Key Auctioneers will conduct the live and online auction Oct. 1, offering for sale The Corner’s kitchen and bar equipment, indoor and patio seating, tableware and liquor license. The winning bidder will also assume a five-year lease that starts on Nov. 1. The space, which occupies a little over 4,000 square feet, includes both a street level and a basement level.

Broad Ripple Village Properties LLC is the building’s owner.

The property has housed a bar and restaurant since 1982, when John and Nancy Hill opened The Corner Wine Bar. The Hills sold the business to Elizabeth Morse and Liza Zapata in 2001. Early last year, Morse and Zapata sold The Corner Wine Bar and the adjacent Wellington Pub to business partners Chris Kirksey, Juan Pablo Orrego and Chad Gooding.

Kirksey, Orrego and Gooding reconfigured the space and reopened it as a single operation called The Corner, a family-friendly restaurant serving American cuisine.

Last fall, the partners hired Cincinnati-based restaurant consultant Nick Molony to evaluate the operation and suggest improvements. But the partners, all of whom have other jobs, decided to sell the operation rather than commit to the changes needed to improve profitability. The Corner closed in April.

“This was just a side venture for them,” said Key Auctioneers President Seth Seaton. “They’ve just decided that the restaurant business is not something they want to dabble in, or the bar business.”

The goal, Seaton said, is to auction off all The Corner’s assets as a single package. If no bidders show interest, then the assets will be auctioned off piecemeal.

Incidentally, Key Auctioneers also handled another auction of a high-profile Broad Ripple property last month—the former Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Co. site at 1021 Broad Ripple Ave. Thr3e Wise Men, which is part of the fading Scotty’s Brewhouse chain, closed in June as part of its parent company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Indianapolis-based Sun King Brewery acquired Thr3e Wise Men’s furnishings, equipment and liquor license at last month’s auction and plans to open a new concept there next month.

Sun King announced this week that it has chosen Carmel-based FK Restaurant Group as its food partner. FK Restaurant Group has developed a new restaurant called Offshore for the Broad Ripple site, Sun King said. Offshore’s menu will include lobster rolls, clam chowder and other signature items from another FK Restaurant Group eatery, Pier 48 Fish House and Oyster Bar, which opened this week in the new Hyatt House/Hyatt Place hotel at 130 S. Pennsylvania St. downtown. Offshore’s other menu items will include shareable dishes, salads, sandwiches and flatbreads that are inspired by and crafted with Sun King beer.

In other news this week:

HoiTea ToiTea is closing its Broad Ripple tea shop, 6285 N. College Ave., at the close of business Sunday. The retailer’s Fashion Mall at Keystone location will remain open. The husband-and-wife team of Alexandra and Justin Harris opened HoiTea ToiTea in Broad Ripple in 2017, and their Fashion Mall store opened early this year.

Fishers-based Crew Carwash plans to open in Greenwood, at 1151 S. Park Drive just north of East Main Street between Emerson Avenue and I-65. Crew tells IBJ that it hasn’t yet set an opening date. Crew has 32 carwash locations: 23 in the Indianapolis area and nine elsewhere around the state.