Iron Horse Entertainment Group owner Eric Suher is reportedly on track to complete his downtown Northampton properties and put his two long-idle liquor licenses to use.
NORTHAMPTON -- Iron Horse Entertainment Group owner Eric Suher is reportedly on track to complete his downtown Northampton properties and put two long-idle liquor licenses to use.
However, the city's License Commission, which imposed strict deadlines for Suher in November after years of inactivity at 298 Main St. and 28 Center St., granted Suher a few weeks past the original Jan. 6 deadline to get the Center St. property up and running, according to Commissioner William Rosen. Suher has until the end of the month to finish the project.
"He's been diligently getting the place ready," said Rosen. "The inspections are going ahead, and we think everything looks good."
Suher, who is required to give monthly updates at the License Commission meetings, was unable to provide one this month as the Jan. 8 meeting was cancelled due to a commissioner's illness.
Rosen said Suher is currently working on obtaining a Common Victualler License, or the license required for food service establishments, for the space. Suher told the Commission at an October 2012 meeting that the Center Street location, formerly Blue Note Guitars, will be a lounge designed for Iron Horse patrons waiting on a show to begin.
Assistant Building Commissioner Chuck Miller said "rough electric and building and partial rough plumbing" have been completed at Center Street, and Building Commissioner Louis Hasbrouck said the building is projected to have all of its inspections completed by the end of January.
The former First Baptist Church at 298 Main St. in Northampton on Jan. 14, 2013. Eric Suher plans to turn the building into a multi-purpose function hall. When asked whether Suher still faces having his liquor licenses revoked or not renewed if he misses the deadlines, Rosen said it would depend on the circumstances and "what the Commission as a body says."
Suher told the Commission in November that the former First Baptist Church at 298 Main St., which he purchased in 1993, will be completed by June. Building Commissioner Louis Hasbrouck said, based on the building's current status, he also expects the project to be complete by that date.
"We want this to be open by June. We expect it to be open by June. And it's hard to think of some reason it couldn't be up and running and these licenses be put into operation," Rosen said of the Main Street church building.
Suher has appeared before the License Commission several times regarding the inactive licenses. At each meeting, he pushed back the timeline for completion of the projects. In November of 2013, City Solicitor Alan Seewald wrote in a letter to the commission that state Suher's unused licenses "constitute 'pocket licenses,' and the Northampton License Commission has substantial basis to revoke the license and/or to decline to renew them."
Suher's two liquor licenses are currently the only unused licenses in the city, aside from one previously in use by the now-closed Eclipse Restaurant. That license is in the process of being transferred to another owner, according to Rosen.
Northampton is already over quota on its number of allowed liquor licenses. Had Suher's two licenses been revoked or not renewed, the city could have faced losing the licenses for good, says Rosen.
MassLive was unable to reach Suher for comment as of Wednesday morning.
The commission's next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 5 at 4 p.m.