THE owner behind some of the city's most popular restaurants has decided to sell one business in a bid to lighten the load and focus on other ventures.
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Robert Baliva, behind Thaigga and Tammy's Thai, has listed BAY85 for sale and has reduced the price from $320,000 to $185,000 in order to attract more buyers.
The site on Baylis Street was converted from a Mexican restaurant called Montezuma's into a restaurant and bar in 2017.
Mr Baliva said his reasons for selling are genuine and it would allow him to focus on expanding his Thai fusion restaurant.
"We need to focus on our other businesses at the moment and there's opportunities to expand Thaigga and we need to free up some funds in order to make that happen," he said.
"Thaigga has been great for us and we want to bring that experience into other towns, but we need funds to do that.
"BAY85 was a little slow when we first started as a wine and tapas bar, but since then we've changed our menu to be more in line with people's tastes ... it's in a position now where it's profitable."
Mr Baliva said the menu change, reintroducing fishbowls and opening a function room in October last year have been draw cards.
"We decided to change up the venue and add extra space and it's been really good the last 12 months compared to the previous 12 months," he said.
"We thought BAY85 would be as good or even better than Thaigga because we were doing something different, like we did with Thaigga, and the location was a lot better.
"But, it never got to the point of Thaigga and Tammy moving to Kooringal was really good so that's why we feel a little more comfortable selling off BAY85."
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The restaurant is producing a weekly turnover of about $21,000 and Mr Baliva said there are opportunities for the new owners to increase trade.
"My thoughts would be to open on Monday and do breakfast, which would lift trading by an extra 30 per cent and bring the weekly turnover closer to $30,000," he said.
GSE business consultant Robert Illsley said when businesses hit the market, people often blame the economy or high rents but this is not the case here.
"This is profitable ... the buyer could take a profit from day one; Wagga is a great place to do business," Mr Illsley said.
"BAY85 is a genuine opportunity: it has high-quality fit-out, there's a great function room with plenty of space in the premises and a full commercial kitchen that is only a couple years old.
"There's a strong opportunity to make good money - it's operating, it's profitable and it's cheap."