Kushner's Rent Was Too High For Guy Fieri Restaurant: Report

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and senior adviser of President Donald Trump, may have had a role in the unexpected closing of beloved (and despised) Times Square tourist hotspot Guy's American Kitchen and Bar, according to reports.

When Guy Fieri's Times Square restaurant shuttered suddenly at the end of 2017, it was initially unknown why the successful eatery closed its doors. Turns out, not even $17 million in annual sales from roughly 350,000 customers per day could afford the rent demanded by its landlord — Kushner Companies, the Washington Post first reported.

Kushner Companies was charging Guy's American Kitchen and Bar $1.8 million per year for the restaurant's 16,000-square-foot space in 220 W. 44th St. — a six-story retail building located between Seventh and Eighth avenues — according to the Post. By the time December rolled around, the restaurant was behind its rent by two months, Bloomberg reported.

Guy's American Kitchen and Bar would have needed to generate about $30 million in annual sales in order to consistently meet its rent demands, the Post reported.

Kushner was chief executive of Kushner Companies when the real estate firm purchased the West 44th Street property for $296 million in 2015, Bloomberg reported. Kushner stepped down from his role in the company after accepting a job in the White House.

When Fieri's restaurant opened in 2012 it was panned by critics such as the New York Times' Pete Wells, who asked "When you hung that sign by the entrance that says, WELCOME TO FLAVOR TOWN!, were you just messing with our heads?" Perhaps the flame-patterned bowling shirt-wearing, frosted-tips-having, donkey sauce-loving chef never stood a chance against the New York City elite.

Photo of Kushner by Jose Luis Magan/AP Photo; Photo of Fieri by Erik Kabik Photography/ MediaPunch/IPX