Dispute, funding imperil project

LYNN – The plan to turn a site of several former seedy nightclubs into a family style restaurant and function hall has come to a virtual standstill over a lack of funding and apparent miscommunication according to city officials.Richard Conigliaro proposed to create a restaurant and function hall named Grille 25, formerly named Tony C’s, in memory of his brother and Red Sox legend Tony Conigliaro.After receiving approval from the City Council for a restaurant facility, Conigliaro said he began constructing a function hall when Ward 5 City Councilor Paula Mackin abruptly put a stop to the work.”She went ballistic and told me that I had to do the restaurant first because that is what all of the residents at the Stadium Condominiums wanted and made me stop my work,” he said. “I informed her that the reason we were doing the function hall first because that is what the bank wanted.”Mackin said Conigliaro’s claim that she “went ballistic” couldn’t be further from the truth.”He (Conigliaro) invited me to check out the construction and when I got there, he was doing the function hall and said he would create the restaurant later, but that wasn’t what his petition was for?it was for a restaurant,” she said. “The Stadium Condominium residents are my first priority because they have been burned so many times before and they were very excited about a restaurant.”Mackin said she called an emergency meeting with City Council President Tim Phelan, Executive Director of the Economic Development & Industrial Corporation (EDIC) James Cowdell and Conigliaro to resolve the issue.During that meeting, Conigliaro claimed that Cowdell promised that he would give him a loan for the project, which Mackin, Cowdell and Phelan vehemently denied took place.”Cowdell said that the EDIC would back me if I did the restaurant first, so it cost me $6,000 to get artist renditions and to get on the ball to start the change, and I put an application in with the EDIC,” he said.After submitting the application, Conigliaro said he waited for several weeks to get word from the city but said he never received any money.”So I had my attorney John Mihos set up a meeting with Cowdell and he canceled over eight meetings,” he said. “In the meantime, I ran out of money doing the renovations, and I got a rejection letter for the loan from EDIC soon after.”Cowdell however denied talk of a guaranteed loan.”Never once did I promise Mr. Conigliaro that he would get a loan,” he said. “He applied for a $350,000 loan, but in EDIC history, the largest amount ever given out was $200,000 to the VNA (Visiting Nurses Association). So the amount requested was much too high.”Cowdell went on to say that Conigliaro’s application was denied for a number of reasons, including the fact that the project is not located in the central business district or the harbor district, two areas that the city is currently concentrating on to refurbish.”We also have very limited resources at EDIC,” he said. “We’re not a bank and we only have a very finite amount of money. Plus, Mr. Conigliaro came before the City Council and told the 11-member body that financing was not an issue, but that’s obviously not the case.”Phelan also stressed that Conigliaro met with him, 50 or so residents of the Stadium Condominiums and Mackin and specifically said that he was creating a restaurant and even handed out menus.”We (City Council) agreed to support that proposal, but not a bar or a function hall,” he said.Regardless of Cowdell’s or Phelan’s responses, Conigliaro said the city has crushed his dreams of opening up a restaurant/function hall in memory of his brother and Red Sox legend, Tony Conigliaro.”It was just an unbelievable dream, would have been a jewel for the city and they killed it,” he said. “”I don’t want any money from the EDIC, they sandbagged me.”Having spent approximately $150,000 out of pocket and now making payments on a $325,000 loan for the now-defunct plan, Conigliaro said he is completely frustrated