Rick Bove, grandson of the Italian eatery’s founders, is proposing to demolish the restaurant building at 64 Pearl Street in Burlington to make way for a $14 million apartment complex. It would include two buildings, one with 39 units and another with 17 units, as well as a 60-car underground garage.
The development would add 50 net units of housing on the edge of downtown, after subtracting what would be lost in demolition. The proposal also calls for demolishing two 19th-century apartment houses around the corner, at 13 and 19 George Street.
The red brick General Stannard House on the corner of George and Pearl streets would be renovated, according to the application Bove filed with the city. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The restaurant, with its iconic 1940s art deco facade and pistachio interior, closed last December after serving up meatballs and red sauce for more than 70 years. It survived a 1960s urban renewal spree that razed much of Burlington’s Little Italy. Over the decades, it served legions of hungry college kids, families and politicians.
Bove family members announced last fall that they would close the restaurant and expand their spaghetti sauce business from a wholesale plant in Milton. The initial plan was to use the vacant restaurant as prep space for catering jobs.
The closure set off a local debate about what should happen to the building, and some suggested it be carted off to Shelburne Museum as a relic of Burlington’s Little Italy. Historic preservationists frowned on that, saying it’s best to keep historic properties in place.
The proposal is in the early stages, known as sketch plan review, and has not yet come before the city’s development review board.
It’s unclear what roadblocks, if any, Bove might face in seeking permission from the city for the plan. The Bove’s building is on the Vermont State Register of Historic Places and city codes discourage teardowns of historic structures.
The Boves won approval to demolish two historic buildings on the same block of Pearl Street back in 2001 for the Victoria Place apartments, built next to Bove’s.
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The mayor and his cronies on the various boards will have no problems pushing this through… they would also probably love to get rid of the cruddy tenants that live out back of the General Stannard House… it’s nothing but drunks and druggies after all and doesn’t look good to the tourists… how will they get rid of the subsidized housing in Victoria Place?… that should prove more problematic… but they’ll find a way I am sure… you know what?… underground parking is too expensive… why not just change the zoning to accommodate the desires of the developers?… get going on that Miro, will you?
The George Street property has been in a state of crumbling disrepair for years, to the real detriment of the families who have been living there and an eyesore to the neighborhood. I walked by this property all the time when I lived in the neighborhood. It is a real shame that only now, not to make sure their tenants live in safe and healthy conditions, but due to the proposed redeveloped mall adding value to the area, that the Boves are looking to finally update their housing, which has had a ton of code violations for years.
“But more serious deficiencies — such as loose slate on the roof, an exterior wall in poor condition and lead paint issues — have also gone unaddressed at a nine-unit building Bove owns at 3-11 George Street. In all, about 40 housing code violations have been reported at Bove’s George Street properties, Ward says.”
http://m.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/burlington-holds-liquor-licenses-hostage-to-get-compliance-on-code-violations-and-taxes/Content?oid=2243930
My previous comment was meant as sarcasm… if you liked it then you thought it was a decent course of action… which is not nice… and if you disliked it… then you thought I was advocating for that same course of action… which I wasn’t… next time I won’t attempt sarcasm
How come there is no problem putting a parking garage on that land. And where the new mall is going they can’t do it. Looking at the prices seems to be a hell of a lot different I realize this is a much smaller project but still way out of the park