Shuttered Package Store’s Owner Persists

The state has shut down a problem liquor store on Whalley Avenue, but its owner has hopes of reopening — and winning over his neighbors.

The state Liquor Control Commission issued a May 26 decision to deny a permit renewal to Hasmukh ​“Harry” Patel, owner of the store, Paramount Liquor at 355 Whalley Ave. The decision was made two months after 12 neighbors testified at a two-day hearing about how the liquor store has contributed to a problem corner for neighbors, businesses, and police.(Click here to read about the hearing.)

Patel has owned Paramount for the past 24 years. He purchased it from an owner who ran the neighborhood store for about 50 years. 

Paramount was shut down last Friday after the ruling criticized Patel’s failure to deal with years of resident complaints about the store causing loitering, public intoxication, public urination, littering, and public safety concerns. 

“It is very clear from their testimony that these problems have been ongoing for years and are directly related to the manner in which the Permittee operates his business,” the commission stated. ​“His testimony that after all these years he will now take concrete steps to improve the situation, rings hollow given the long history of inaction by the Permittee.” (Click here to read the Paramount memorandum and remonstrance decision.) 

Patel said he plans to appeal the commission decision through his lawyer. The decision to close his business down was made too quickly and without serious warnings or time to make changes to his establishment for the betterment of the neighborhood, he said. 

Meanwhile, Whalley/Edgewood/Beaver Hills (WEB) Community Management Team Chair Nadine Horton, who is the acting agent for the remonstrance on behalf of the community, said the neighborhood has been trying to work with Patel for the past seven years to improve his business and its impacts before ultimately feeling it had no choice but to go the route of the remonstrance. 

Patel: What About Me?

On Monday Patel returned to the closed shop, which has a posting on its entrance door stating his permit has been revoked permanently. 

There was no crowd seen loitering on the Paramount property. Small groups did form occasionally across the way after being turned away by Patel and his staff, who informed the regulars that the shop was closed. 

“Now I have to go down the block,” said one visitor after being turned away from Patel. 

“My store is closed, and there’s people still hanging around,” Patel added. 

After the April hearings, Patel said, he installed an additional camera on the property in hopes that it will make neighbors feel safer and capture any illegal activity for him to share with the police. 

He said he plans to appeal the commission decision in order to continue to work to support his wife and two kids currently attending Harvard and the University of Connecticut and to pay the bills for health conditions he suffers from. 

“If they’re thinking about quality of life, what about me?” he said. 

In addition to Paramount, Patel owns a Happy Harry’s Wine & Liquor franchise with warehouse outlets in Bristol, Hamden, West Haven, and Newington. 

He said he runs all his businesses similarly while also trying to cater to the neighborhood clientele he’s serving. At his Happy Harry’s site at 956 Dixwell Ave. in Hamden, he said, his customers ask for selections that can range from $200-$600. At his Whalley Avenue shop, he said, people request that he bottle selections below $100.

“Certain stuff doesn’t sell in this neighborhood. How can I put it in my store,” he said. 

The Happy Harry’s shop in Hamden is nestled between a Dunkin Donuts and the diner Barbara’s Restaurant. 

“They don’t only come for the alcohol from Paramount,” Patel said.

Patel said he thought he was cooperating with the neighborhood by constantly contacting the police department when problems arose.

“Everything is coming on me, but this corner is busy because of all the businesses,” Patel said. 

He said he has to deal with nearby businesses dumping their trash by his dumpster and other businesses’ customers using his parking lot. 

“People park here because I’m the only one with parking. They all go to all the businesses, then come back and make it look like they only come here for me,” Patel said. ​“We can’t always be outside, because we have to be inside working.” 

He said he is currently working to get a buzzer for the shop’s entrance and a parking lot chain to close off the parking lot when necessary.

While at the shop Monday, Patel and an employee said they had to make dozens of calls to the shop’s distributors to try and send back the $70,000 worth of June inventory . 

“I don’t know how I can pay the delivery if I cannot open the store,” he said.

Years ago, Patel said, the corner had more walking police patrols, and that helped deter problems. 

Neighbors: "We're Not Giving It Back"

Meanwhile Horton and Allen McCollum, director of Whalley Avenue Special Services District (WASSD), praised the commission’s decision. Horton said it will ​“bring peace and quality of life back to the corner.” 

Horton said after seven years of trying to work with Patel to improve Paramount’s presence in the neighborhood, she struggles to believe things can ever change. 

She said even after the April hearing, she witnessed nine intoxicated people laid out outside the store. 

One question that remains unanswered by the commission and neighbors is whether the closure of Paramount will help address the broader concern of alcohol use disorders in the neighborhood. 

Hortone described Paramount as ​“the main driver of all the issues on that corner.” Since its closure, the corner has been quiet and peaceful, she said.

She said other active areas like the New York Style Deli and Island Spice, just across the way from Paramount, continue to make efforts to clean up their properties and deter loitering when notified. 

“When the community offered suggestions to improve and bring order and peace to Paramount, we were ignored,” she said. 

“You cannot just come into a neighborhood and get whatever you can in terms of money and city resources, just go home at the end of the day, and just leave us to clean it up,” she said. 

McCollum said the closure of Paramount is ​“going to be a great transition for the district.” 

He said Whalley Avenue has too many liquor stores, which creates a bad environment. 

McCollum owns the property next door to Paramount that houses Island Spice at 459 Winthrop Ave. and the Deli at 351 Whalley Ave. He said he was getting complaints from his tenants on a daily basis about the corner’s loitering activity and public intoxication. 

McCollum too has sat down with Patel on a number of occasions in the past to discuss how to improve the corner. ​“His actions didn’t follow with the conversations we had,” he said. 

The closing of Paramount is only the start, McCollum said. He said he hopes to see another liquor store closed on Whalley to limit the easy access of alcohol to those suffering from alcohol abuse disorder. He said he has spoken with several neighborhood residents who agree.

“Closing Paramount is a start to revitalizing the district,” he said. ​“I’m wondering if it will be up for sale.”