KKGS application.

Request for MCU and extra undercover dining space for 56 Main st ,  Kin Kin General Store
(home of Blackant Gourmet and Mayan Farm)
Kin Kin General store was closed for many years before we took the risk to reopen its doors to not only benefit the local community but  to also  use as a commercial kitchen for our growing catering and manufacturing business in our home town.   The front of the shop was only meant to offer a small selection of groceries and meals, but due to consumer demand and the need to cover expenses, we decided to increase our menu and sales items.    Business grew, but labour expenses grew faster.   Blackant catering and manufacturing was already  a good existing business but  has now become second priority due to the increasing demands that  Kin Kin general Store and Cafe’ generates.  After looking long and hard at the businesses under the same roof, we realise we need to make the Kin Kin General store/Cafe a destination for it to be able to be viable.    We applied for a liquor licence which we received over a year ago and would now like to apply for an MCU to provide weather proof undercover seating for increasing  weekend trade.      The best option we have would be to create an extended undercover dining area with increased seating for weekend country drives and small group country style lunches.  Our focus would be for weekend day events as we already do many off site functions through our catering arm of the business.   I would like them to come to us rather than us  going to them.
I believe there is an opportunity to create a destination where customers from Noosa, Gympie, and the south coast areas could meet for small family get together in a central area.    The dining space would be in a peaceful country family friendly setting.
Last year our catering business increased 148% and the General store business increased 53%.
To support this business growth, we would like to increase the dining numbers and undercover area, but for use on Friday Nights, Saturday Day and Sunday Day only.    As our weekday  trade  is a lot quieter than our weekend trade ,   we would like to make the new back dining area available from Friday 5:30 – 8:30, Saturday 3hours either lunch or dinner depending on weather winter or summer) and  Sunday 12 – 3 only.  We would restrict access during the week as we do not need the extra space and staffing that area without the weekend trade would not be viable.    As a result we would like to request the possibility of a reduction of contribution fees based on pro rata use.   As we are currently open 7 days a week operating approx 80 hours a week,   but we would only be interested in using the new dining space approx  10 hours per  week  on weekends.
As we provide our own tank water, effluent treatment system and ½ our power by solar, we would also like to request a possible reduction of application fees .   I’ve been advised that there are many parts of the application process that is not applicable to us and would appreciate this to be considered.
By reducing the application fees and paying the infrastructure fees based on pro rata only ; I hope to be able to afford to cover all costs associated in the completion of the undercover structure.   There was a tight budget that we have already had to access to ensure we had adequate  parking available for the MCU to be approved.
We are able provide 5 extra car parks for customers on the existing hardstand as well as the one existing disable car park. There will also be room on the hard stand for a small bus or tour group van to park with easy access and to Australian standards.  In total we have planned to provide 7 car parks on site.  In addition there are 3 carparks currently available directly in front of the shop as well and plenty for unmarked parking along the sides of road along Main st .    As many of our staff are locals ..... walking , car pooling, bike riding and parents dropping off teenagers to work is applicable to more than 50% of our staff.  Many of our staff are high school students that work weekends or are doing traineeships.  Our  day shifts and evening bake shifts allow our staff to be spread out allowing ample carparking for  the 2 seniors on per shift.
I have received written support via email from all of  our 5 direct residential neighbours.  We have been operating the Kin Kin General store with meals and small occasions for the past 5 years  ( by way of our off site catering business)  and have included alcohol service for the past 12 months.  We are very aware of our community and  country surrounds and have not had any issues to date , and plan to keep it that way.  We chose for our  liquor license to end at 10pm instead of 12pm as most of our customers are home by 8pm.  We aim to keep the Kin Kin General Store as a day time destination as we are open at 7AM for breakfast.
By allowing this increase in undercover dining space we will create a weather proof destination that will not only provide several new jobs, but will  ensure the general store can keep it’s doors open for the local community and no longer relying on the catering and manufacturing business to support it’s viability.   By creating a Farm to Plate destination on the Noosa Country Drive, we will not only bring tourism to this quaint country Village , but we will support more much needed  local business growth by way of becoming a catalyst for business growth and country based tourism.   In addition to local growth we may also help relieve some of the congestion in Noosa Heads at peak times that will more than likely increase over the next few years.  The increased tourism by way of day trippers and weekend visitors has been provided  in reports provided by Tourism Noosa  which I am sure you are familiar with.
Unique National parks,  stunning Beaches,  and gorgeous Countryside....Noosa has it all!
As a maximum customer situation we would allow no more than two functions per weekend and those group functions would not exceeded 60 people. In the event of a function out in the new dining space we would look at no more than 30 people along the deck. So maximum bums on seats would be 90 people.......our other option would be to close the café if we had 60 people out the back and offer take away options only for local is that made things easier DA/MCU  wise. If not much difference I will stick to the plan of 30 on deck and 60 out in new undercover space.   I believe given past history we would be lucky to have 40% occupancy  at any given time.   We have already been doing functions and group dining experiences at out the back of the Kin Kin General store by way of our operating through Off site Catering company Blackant Gourmet.  We have been doing this for the past 4 years legally with no incident other than marquees not being suitable in bad weather and hot days not comfortable due to not enough undercover shade area.  Hence the application for building a permanent undercover structure.
We are very conscious of our environment and have shown this by having sustainable practices in place.
As we live in a small community and plan to continue to; we are very aware of the affects changes to a business may have on the local  community and after consulting with many of the locals, the majority of feedback has been very positive.    We are not interested in creating a new place for the locals to drink, but rather a different type of dining experience and environment where they can bring family and friends to enjoy a country daytime dining experience.
Without the consistency of weather proof extended dining, I believe our business will not be able to reach it’s next level of growth which may result in both sides of our business being compromised.   We have worked long and hard to get this business to where it is currently at today.  I look forward to the next 5yrs to fine tune this business so it is running at it’s best.   I have an amazing team that are keen to make this business function to it’s full potential and this MCU is a key part in that process.   The reduction of fees for this application is important to ensure the completion of the total project that will lead to more jobs, better customer service and more weekend business opportunities.   In the event that the  fees were not within our overall budget, we would seriously look at reducing our  General Store/ cafe business to three or four days a week, opening Thursday, Friday , Saturday,  Sunday only.  This would allow us to reduce our employment by 50 %  while still allowing  us to increase our manufacturing and catering side of the business on the days we are closed to the public.   Once we have finished paying for our building costs we could later consider whether we would go back to opening  7 days a week  and employing more staff again.
When we first started looking into the application process we worked out the application fees and pro rata fees would total around $8k give or take.   Since then application fees have gone up and our building size has needed to increase to  ensure customers are comfortable and out of the weather .  For this dining space we are building a 128sqm barn roof that will have no walls.  As both the sun and rain comes in at different angles at different times of the day and  year, we have allowed an extra metre on all four sides of the roof to compensate for this.(Approx 34sqm) There is a weather proof breezeway that 70sqm that will not be for undercover dining, but will be used for staff and customer to walk freely between the existing  side deck and the new barn protected from the elements.    We were recently advised that being able to provide extra onsite par parking would be necessary for the increased sized roof.    With these new increases and changes we will struggle to complete this larger more expensive project without something needing to give.  Hopefully it won’t be by way of employment reduction or a reduction of operating hours for this community asset.

I appreciate all of your time and look forward to seeing where we go from here.

Jodie Williams