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Investor group buys buildings housing venerable dives in Cleveland Circle, Theater District, Beacon Hill
By adamg on Fri, 07/13/2018 - 11:42am
A group that includes apartment developers Fred Starikov and Steve Whalen of City Realty yesterday bought the buildings housing Mary Ann's on Beacon Street in Cleveland Circle, the Tam on Tremont Street in the Theater District and the Beacon Hill Pub on Charles Street.
Records on file at the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds, which John Keith found while rummaging around yesterday, show Starikov, Whalen and the other investors in a new company called Greatest Boston Bar Co. bought the buildings from longtime local bar owner Barry Bornstein.
The group paid $1.51 million for Mary Ann's building, which BC students have flocked to for decades. The future of the bar had been in question since January, when owner Stanley Chaban died.
Greater Boston Bar Co. paid $1.6 million for the building that houses the Tam and $5.54 million for the building the Beacon Hill Pub is in.
Other investors in the company include Julius Sokol, William Gateman and Dana Rosenblatt.
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Comments
This has been in the works
for a while now. Especially after Stanley died. We'll see how long it takes before they decide to gut the places and go upscale.
Why?
Why spend so much money to "upscale" when the BHP an the other places make good cash just serving to people who think they are slumming.
You think the profit margin on selling one bottle of wine beats the profit on selling 10 Bud Light Drafts?
He may be right
Of these bars, in the last 5 years I've only been in The Tam. I was surprised that drafts are like $6 or $7.
exactly
Will Emerson kids be able to afford it if it goes 'upscale'?
Not sure if
you've actually been in the Tam recently. Miller Lite drafts are $3. Tall boys of Narragansett are $3.50. Yes, they make a lot of money, particularly given that it's cash-only, but I don't think that the bar itself is where the greatest potential lies.
The upper three floors of the Tam have been vacant for quite some time. Upgrading to allow residences (or offices, etc.) up above would be potentially very profitable. As it is now, the building is woefully behind code thanks to being "grandfathered in" under old codes.
To rehab any of the building, which is practically falling down at this point, would mean rehabbing the entire thing. And if they're putting out the money to rehab the whole thing, I imagine the concept of the first floor establishment would change.
I also don't think that the primary clientele of the Tam is people who "think they're slumming it." It's theater goers who simply want the closest place for a drink, it's Emerson students, it's people going to see concerts nearby, it's locals who've been going there for 40 years, it's Tufts dental/medical students and staff, etc.
Granted, none of this guarantees that the building at 222 Tremont St. will be renovated right away, but anyone who's spent much time there lately realizes that the Tam's days are likely numbered.
Good to know
Next time I'll skip the foo-foo Harpoon IPA and go for the 'Gansett.
Since when?
Since when is Harpoon IPA "foo foo" and Gansett anything other than a reboot for hipsters?
Gansett
is what Budweiser would taste like if it did not taste like shite
His sarcasm eluded you
Still love ya, Swirl.
Also, the fact that
it was bought by real estate people with a history of development speaks to their ultimate aim down the road. They didn't buy the place because they want to manage a bar. They bought it because of what it might become.
Alternative, at least for Mary Ann's
Starikov and Whalen kind of specialize in putting up housing on odd little lots (like this apartment building they just built on Hyde Park Avenue in Forest Hills, the one with the taco place that's still closed because of some inspectional issue): So keep the Mary Ann's liquor license but put up a new building there to go with the new Circle complex, then put a Cityside-type bar on the first floor.
These same investors own
These same investors own properties all over East Boston some of their overpriced properties have been up for sale for quite some time in Eastie.
Nooooooo
Please don't take the Tam or BHP. Please.
I'll buy more Bud Light. Those little bags of chips, too. I promise.
Pretty please.
Don't Know What the Plan Is
But if they're getting rid of them or improving them, good riddance.
Dive bars are always more charming in popular consciousness than in reality.
Most people love to romanticize them as some sort of bastion of neighborhood soul but they're really just the restaurant equivalent of a slum lord; a place that values maximum profit margin over safety and quality.
Then
You haven't gotten to know your dive bar bartender at all.
signed, a Tam regular.
I Don't Blame the Employees
It's not like they have any control over the quality standards and investment of the owners. I'm sure they're great.
I've been in the bathrooms of Mary Ann's and Beacon Hill Pub in my younger days. These are not businesses being run to anywhere close to an acceptable standard. At those places, you'd be lucky if you got a glass that had been washed.
If someone's going to charge an extra buck for a bud light in order to clean the place once a week, that's not a sign of the death of a city. That's a good thing.
“Bastions of neighborhood
“Bastions of neighborhood soul” is exactly what these relics of a bygone era are. I’m biased since I worked at the pub for 5 years or so in the late aughts.
Yeah the floors were sticky and the decor dated. I’ve seen many people of all ages enjoy this bar and her sisters. Great friendships develop. Laughs. Cherished memories. I’ve worked all kinds of joints from a mess like the pub to award winning destination fine dining. I’ve been to more weddings from people who bumped into one another randomly at the pub over the years than people who met in college or a cooler venue. Your jaw would hit the floor if you saw how many people came back to that spot years later who met their spouse there. It might seem cool to belittle these kinds of spots on the internet, but I can assure you that they meant a great deal to a great many people. RIP BHP.
Wrong
As a young person whose been in the restaurant industry for more than 10 years. I assure you. You couldn’t be more wrong.
Some of u may disagree w/me
Some of u may disagree w/me but I hate to see parts of dirty ole Boston disappear forever. RIP to one of Boston's iconic Combat Zone survivors. The TAM.
Dana Rosenblatt
"Other investors in the company include Julius Sokol, William Gateman and Dana Rosenblatt."
Dangerous Dana Rosenblatt, former middleweight boxer out of Malden?
Correction
I think you mean former IBA world middleweight champion. He kicked my butt.
Super middleweight title
I was actually in Veez's on Main Street in Malden the night Rosenblatt got KO'd by Pazienza. He beat Paz a couple of years later. Beat Terry Norris for the middleweight title. Good fighter, had hand injurt problems as I recall.
Could be
After he retired from the ring, he went into real estate.