Laura Glesby Photo
Kent Mawhinney and Alexis Kang: Give pinot noir a chance.
Hundreds of new residents will soon be allowed to move into on-the-rise apartments at the ex-Coliseum property — but they won’t be allowed to walk downstairs to buy alcohol at a “high-end” liquor store on site.
Alexis Kang had envisioned opening up a liquor store at 24 George St., the site of the former New Haven Coliseum, which Spinnaker Real Estate Partners is now converting into a massive mixed-use redevelopment known as “Square 10.”
The first building, currently in the final stages of construction, will contain 200 apartments and ground-floor commercial space.
The one problem for Kang’s plan: The ex-Coliseum address is 861 feet from another liquor store, College Wine, at 68 Church St. That’s well within the 1,500-foot distance from other liquor stores required by city ordinance.
In order to move forward, Kang needed a variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA).
On Tuesday night, BZA members unanimously denied Kang’s application for that zoning variance.
Kang’s lawyer, Kent Mawhinney, had framed the liquor store as an upscale alternative to other businesses in the area.
“It’s not going to be your traditional liquor store. There’s not gonna be cardboard with ‘Corona’ on it in the window,” said Mawhinney, adding, “I’m not saying that’s bad!”
Instead, Mawhinney stressed, Kang sought to build a “high-end” liquor store to serve customers, including residents of the hundreds of new apartments under construction at the former Coliseum site. (The first residents should be moving in in the next few weeks, according to what a Spinnaker VP told the Independent for a recent story about how the Elm City Market grocery store will be relocating to a much smaller commercial space at the ex-Coliseum site as well.)
“We want to be a part of New Haven’s revitalization. We are only 1 small part,” Kang wrote in a text message to the Independent the next day. “I do not want special treatment. I simply want to be on an equal footing.”
In 2022, the BZA lost a lawsuit after granting a similar variance to another business. The plaintiffs in that case, The Wine Thief, succeeded in overturning the board’s decision and blocking a new liquor store from opening at a different new downtown apartment building.
This time around, city zoning staffers recommended that the BZA reject Kang’s variance request.
So did the owners of two nearby liquor stores, including College Wine.
Praveen Kumar Bala, testifying against "competition and market saturation."
Praveen Kumar Bala, the owner of College Wine, testified in “strong objection” to the requested variance on Tuesday.
If the board allowed a liquor shop within 1,500 feet of his own business, he said, it would increase “competition and market saturation,” Kumar Bala said. He noted that there are already several liquor stores in the Downtown/Ninth Square area.
Rita Patel, the owner of the New Bottle Shop at 492 Orange St., also testified against the variance. She owns a “small mom and pop store” in East Rock, as she described it, 11 blocks away from Kang’s proposed store.
The applicants “don’t have a legal hardship,” Patel said about Kang.
“The city should think of supporting small stores,” she said — by rejecting the proposal for a small business that would potentially compete with her own. (Back in 2021, Patel also spoke out against Atticus Market on Orange Street’s bid for a liquor permit. Atticus wound up withdrawing its application.)
After testimony concluded, BZA Chair Mildred Melendez moved to deny the variance. “I’m gonna adhere to the rules,” she said.
Her colleagues on the board all agreed.
“It’s a shame we don’t have the same monitoring for smoke shops,” Melendez observed.
BZA Chair Mildred Melendez, with fellow zoner Mike Martinez: "It's a shame we don't have the same monitoring for smoke shops."
Thomas Breen photo
Ex-Coliseum apartments, on the rise on George St.