HEARING DATE AND TIME: 1/23/2023 1:30-4PM
HEARING MEETING LINK: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/join-a-meeting
HEARING MEETING #: 284 118 944 643 PASSWORD: 82FYff
CALL IN FOR AUDIO ONLY: 857-327-9245 PIN #: 603 202 668#
In March 2022, Fashionable Concepts LLC competed against a bunch of other local businesses for the last all-alcohol license in the city after census data showed that due to population change, one more was available.
Fashionable Concepts won the license on the expectation he was to open at 341 Cochituate Rd. The license cost him nothing. The store never opened, and last month we learned that he had agreed to sell the license to Fresh Market (of Hingham) for $340,000, so that they could open a store at the old Bed Bath & Beyond on Worcester Rd.
The License Commission denied the transfer of the license in November after it was revealed that within 2 weeks of obtaining the license, Fashionable Concepts was already trying to sell their license, making it appear that they had no intention on opening on Cohcituate Rd. The lack of opening a store – was what Framingham cited as the reason that the license was never made valid.
The license board went one step further than to just deny the transfer of the license… they denied renewal of the license for 2023.
Fashionable Concepts LLC has a morning appeal on Jan 23, 2023 to appeal this denial.
Immediately after this appeal – it seems that Fashionable Concepts has filed a request to change the location of its business from Cochituate Rd to a shitty location at the intersection of Hartford Ave and Concord St.
This move seems to be ploy to open and make it’s Package Store license valid, and then to sell the license to Fresh Market or another entity.
The blighted retail location at 17 Hartford Ave, they are “moving to” is not suited well to a liquor store or much of any kind of store. It has been vacant for quite a few years, it lacks parking, it’s quite small (2400 sq ft), but fortunately for Fashionable Concepts, these things make leases like this quite inexpensive.
The license board meeting listed above will have tensions boiling. We expect this meeting to be the must see of the week.
They can deny the transfer as there is another store one block away on Arthur St
This is perhaps the worst place for a liquor store. There’s NO parking, and it’s on a busy street. Just a few blocks from another liquor store. If I was on the board, I’d deny them the license just for the traffic situation alone.