Pemberton Market to replace Bread & Butter Konvenience?

[ron_newman]

from the Porter Square Neighbors e-mail list:

Tom Saidnawey, proprietor of the food market and package liquor store at the corner of Mass. and Rindge Avenues, will discuss his plans to vacate the premises at the end of May, when his relatives who own the property are expected to begin long-needed renovations of the storefronts. Saidnawey, who also owns and operates Pemberton Farms & Garden Center at 2225 Mass. Ave., has negotiated a three-year initial lease and applied to transfer the market's wine-beer-and-liquor-sales license across the Avenue to the building currently occupied by the Bread & Butter drive-up convenience store, 2245 Mass. Ave. at the corner of Day Street.

If city officials okay the proposed liquor permit transfer, the relocated Pemberton Market would devote less than half of its floor space to packaged alcoholic beverages and the remainder to convenience and spa-type items, including tobacco, lottery tickets, periodicals, dairy products, soda, sandwiches, snacks, and candy. The store would not stay open overnight. At the current location, Pemberton is licensed to sell alcoholic beverages from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Monday through Saturday and from noon to 8 p.m. on Sunday.

The sale of wine and beer ceased at the Day Street location a couple of years ago when White Hen Pantry's lease expired and Bread & Butter took over the site. The introduction of alcohol sales sparked neighborhood controversy and an unsuccessful appeal to state licensing officials when White Hen originally bought the dormant Highland Farms liquor license and transferred it to the all-night convenience store, which previously had generated crime, vandalism, litter, noise, and other problems for its residential neighbors and Saint John's Church. White Hen's unexercised "pocket" liquor license was purchased and transferred out of the "capped" North Cambridge liquor license zone late last year.

The Cambridge License Commission has scheduled a May 13 public hearing on the proposed transfer of Pemberton's all-alcoholic-beverages package store license from its longtime Rindge Ave. location to the free-standing building at Mass. Ave. and Day Street.

Comments

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

There's a Porter mailing list? How does one join?

[ron_newman]

http://www.portersquare.net/

[teko.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I was wondering what was going on over there. Last time I asked anyone at Pemby's (a month or so ago), they said "Yeah, we're moving over there... I guess, sometime. This place is a hole! We're done!" but couldn't say when. When I asked the cashier at Pemberton Farms, it seemed like a sore point, so I didn't press the issue.

I think having Pemberton Market next to their upscale Farms store makes a lot more sense than trying to combine the two in Farms' existing space.

[violet-helix.livejournal.com]

The store would not stay open overnight. At the current location, Pemberton is licensed to sell alcoholic beverages from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Monday through Saturday and from noon to 8 p.m. on Sunday.

Well this is not good news. Looks like I'll be losing a really convenient place to pick up late night odds and ends.

[ron_newman]

I agree. Should we all write letters to Pemberton asking them to consider staying open 24 house? (They might not want to, in any event.)

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

"spa-type items"

I'm envisioning big fluffy robes and towels, sauna supplies, facial scrubs and a portable massage table.

Original note written, I assume, by a native.

[fappyheet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we're talking your Mass Ave-style spa, not your Manchester-by-the-Sea kind of spa.

Though now that you mention it, I've seen "spa" written for that purpose plenty of times, though not spoken with a nice Boston edge in the years I've lived here. Am I not hanging out at Sligo often enough?

[laryu.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, the building is also for sale:
From the C. Brendan Noonan & Co. website (http://www.noonanrealestate.com/commercial/featured/2245mass.htm/).

[ron_newman]

Link doesn't work. Try this instead.

It sounds like Pemberton will only be moving into there for the amount of time it takes to gut-rehab their existing store. But I could be wrong.

[beezy515.livejournal.com]

No, from what I understand, the existing store is going to be subdivided into two smaller spaces. It will take about a year and a half to do the construction because of the extensive repairs needed.

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

Do I smell coffee?

Or (God forbid) burritos?

[syntheticnature.livejournal.com]

Oh god yes please.

signed, extremely lazy person who lives across the street

[laryu.livejournal.com]

The original post referred to a "three-year initial lease." Of course, signing a lessee does not preclude simultaneously selling a property. In some ways, it enhances a deal (demonstrable cash flow), while in other ways, it could impede a deal (re-development of the property might need to wait for lease expiration depending on the lease terms).