Longtime Laguna Beach restaurateur and former City Council candidate Jon Madison is selling his Madison Square & Garden Café.
The property, a combination restaurant and gift and home decor shop, has a pricetag of $6.5 million.
Built in 1912, the classic Craftsman bungalow has an expansive front porch and multiple patio areas. It’s set on an 8,712-square-foot parcel with towering, mature trees in the city’s north gallery district.
Next door is Urth Café; across the street is the Laguna Art Museum. Main Beach is a block away.
The C-1 zoning allows flexibility, and the café is approved for serving wine and beer, according to the listing. The café has a complete commercial kitchen, it says.
Upstairs, a manager’s suite could be a residence, office space or leased for extra income, the listing suggests. It also says the owner spent $1 million on improvements that “will provide years of low-cost maintenance for the next investor.”
The capitalization rate – the rate of return on the property based on the income it’s expected to generate – was estimated at 7.4 percent.
Sakin Team at Star Real Estate is the listing agent.
Property records show Madison purchased the building with another buyer in 1997. They paid $455,000, according to the records. Madison is now the sole owner, said Philip Talbert at Sakin Team.
The restaurant and its fixtures are included in the sale; the gift shop inventory is negotiable, Talbert said.
Why is Madison selling?
“I think he’s just ready for another chapter,” Talbert said. Madison did not return a reporter’s calls.
Madison is a well-liked businessman who’s been active in the city’s historical preservation efforts, and he’s known as a philanthropist. He has opened the restaurant to fundraisers and donated the food, according to a Register story in 2014.
He also claimed to be a licensed lawyer with numerous university degrees.
But that September, as Madison made what would be an unsuccessful run for City Council, a Register reporter researching his background found that he had none of the degrees nor the State Bar of California membership he said he had.
When confronted, Madison insisted his claims were true.