Ark Restaurants - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Executive Summary

• Q1 2025 revenue was $44.99M, down 5.3% year over year due to closure impacts; GAAP EPS rose to $0.88 on a one-time $5.24M gain from the Tampa Food Court lease termination, while underlying EBITDA (as adjusted) fell to $1.38M, signaling core margin pressure.
• Company-wide same-store sales decreased 2.3% excluding El Rio Grande and Tampa Food Court, reflecting still-soft demand in key full-service markets despite operational efficiencies in Las Vegas and steady performance in Alabama.
• Management emphasized not raising prices amid cost inflation, and flagged material uncertainty around Bryant Park lease renewals; dividend reinstatement and buybacks remain unlikely until Bryant Park is resolved, creating a key stock narrative catalyst.
• Consensus EPS and revenue estimates from S&P Global were unavailable at time of query, so estimate comparisons are not included (S&P Global data unavailable).

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Cash increased to $13.1M with total debt reduced to $4.7M; the quarter also benefited from receipt of a $5.5M termination payment tied to Tampa Food Court, supporting liquidity and deleveraging.
• Las Vegas operations are becoming “considerably more efficient,” with better payroll efficiency and improving cash flows; new general managers in Las Vegas and at Sequoia are expected to drive operational improvements.
• Management remains disciplined on pricing: “We remain steadfast in not raising prices… We do not want the reputation of not offering quality value equation,” supporting long-term demand positioning.

What Went Wrong

• Core profitability weakened: EBITDA, as adjusted, dropped to $1.38M from $2.57M in Q1 2024, highlighting underlying margin compression despite GAAP benefits from one-time items.
• Demand softness persists in Washington, D.C., and broader full-service categories, with weather-related variability in Florida; same-store sales fell 2.3% ex-closures.
• Bryant Park lease uncertainty poses a material EBITDA risk; management disclosed the landlord selected a new operator (pending approvals) and the company is pursuing legal remedies, prolonging strategic overhang.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Can you please? Your company? Which property are you looking for? Okay. I'll bring you right in. Hold on.

Michael Weinstein (CEO)

Helpful in increasing demand, so we'll wait and see on that. All in all, we're just, you know, margins have been squeezed. We're trying to pick the margins up, by being more efficient in payroll, hopefully driving some more revenue. The easy one to talk about, of the two, elephants in the room, Meadowlands and Bryant Park. Meadowlands, again, we think we're the most likely site for gaining a casino license in the North of New Jersey. New Jersey will not move until New York State starts to issue licenses for downstate casinos, meaning Manhattan or Queens or Bronx. Two of those licenses, if they're if we suspect, will be issued to Aqueduct and to Yonkers. We believe that once they're issued, it will take a matter of months for those to become fully operational casinos because the facilities are already built.

For the third license, and there are several developers aligned to those, that will take some time. We think the implementation of casino licenses at Yonkers and Aqueduct will force Jersey to make a decision that they have to do something in the North. Atlantic City has been dying for years, and I think this would really be a death knell. Jersey will wake up and issue a license in the North. We suspect that New York State will issue licenses sometime later this year. We also expect that will generate a referendum, to allow, that it's a referendum voted on by the public, to allow for casino gaming in the North. That's the Meadowlands.

Bryant Park, if we follow the headlines, the Bryant Park Corporation has said they want to go forward with somebody other than us. That deal has not been signed yet. It requires a positive okay from the Parks Department and New York Public Library. We've hired a whole team of experts, and we feel that we have a decent chance of retaining the operation of that facility. It'll take months to know, but we really believe we're still in the game. We think the whole request for proposal process was flawed. The thing that we don't understand is that the license, that the new license to operate, would be issued to a company that has limited hospitality experience. We've been usually successful, and their minimum rent proposal is $1 million less than us.

It just doesn't sound like it's a logical business arrangement, and we're looking into it, and hopefully we will see something that starts to move us back into our direction. With that, any questions? I'm happy to answer.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. You will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation form will indicate your line is requesting queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your headset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Jeffrey Kaminsky with JJK Consulting. Please proceed with your questions.

Jeffrey Kaminsky (Analyst)

Good morning, everyone. Michael, which was, hi, Anthony. With respect to Bryant Park and the process, I guess the folks found out about the lease and the other party through a meeting, the queues properly, through some sort of public hearing or public meeting. My question is, are there more than scheduled, and can the public actually attend? As a shareholder, I have a vested interest in what happens to Bryant Park and to other shareholders of ours. What's preventing us or, you know, as a member of the public and a New York resident, from attending such a hearing?

Michael Weinstein (CEO)

There's nothing preventing you to go to public sessions. The community board session is a public session. The announcement of the Bryant Park Corporation's selection was made at a subcommittee of the community board, meaning it's the Parks and Recreation Subcommittee of the community board. It was a public forum. There was a lot of robust conversation about it, regarding the process and regarding the affordability of the selection of the new restaurateurs. You know, we're reasonably priced. We don't think the selection of Seaport Entertainment Group and their proposed licensing agreement with Jean-Georges speaks well of affordability to the public. There was a large discussion about that.

The community board advisory position in this, the triangle of Jamie gets a deal done with any operator has to come from the City Hall Department and from the Public Library. They have not even proposed a change in operators to either one of those two organizations.

Go ahead.

Jeffrey Kaminsky (Analyst)

Our comments and our comments from the public welcome at the shareholders of the employees.

Michael Weinstein (CEO)

I'm sorry. I said we had 25 employees at the community board meeting. We have 250 employees at Bryant Park Corporation who are in danger of losing their jobs. Literally 40% of those employees have been with us for 25 years or more. That constituency is also important in this process.

Jeffrey Kaminsky (Analyst)

Right. Were any of them able to speak at the meeting? You know, if I attended the next meeting as a shareholder, would I have an opportunity to make a statement?

Michael Weinstein (CEO)

You would have a minute to two minutes to speak.

Jeffrey Kaminsky (Analyst)

Okay. Thank you.

Michael Weinstein (CEO)

You're welcome.

Operator (participant)

As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, press Star 1 on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Ravi Desai, a private investor. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, Michael, how are you?

Michael Weinstein (CEO)

Good, Ravi. Thank you.

I had a question. Moving forward, as you guys think down the road, six months, twelve months, just wanted to get a sense of how you guys are thinking about the capital allocation on dividends or buybacks, or if you guys have any, any other ideas outside of, you know, the strategic acquisitions that you're looking for down south.

That, that's a complicated question, because it really depends upon the outcome of Bryant Park, certainly with regard to dividends. Right now, without the cash flow that would be attending to an operation at Bryant Park, we would not see a payer of dividends. That also is a question regarding buybacks. I think that, that same thought process is applicable. I don't think we're going to be aggressively buying stocks, unless we know what's going on with Bryant Park, number one. As a company, there may be people we're aligned with, you know, who may want to take an interest in the stock. But without Bryant Park, it's very hard to make these decisions.

In terms of expanding the business, we have some nice opportunities, we think, that do not require a tremendous amount of capital, or where we would have partnerships with other organizations that, it's here, it's an important part of the process, to establish some new operations. We are looking at that. It's, you know, it's sort of paralyzing in one respect, for a balance sheet and income statement to have this issue with Bryant Park. On the other hand, we are actively engaged in trying to find areas where we can expand sensibly.

That is exciting.

Yeah, that's helpful there. We'll see how the Bryant Park takes out, and good luck with that. I think it, you know, I hope it falls in your guys' favor.

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

A final reminder, if you would like to ask a question, press Star 1 on your telephone keypad. One moment, please, while we pull for any additional questions. Mr. Weinstein, it appears we have no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the floor back over to you for closing comments.

Michael Weinstein (CEO)

All right. Thank you all for your interest, and we'll see you next quarter.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day.