SAUGUS — The Board of Selectmen is considering an opportunity for a new entertainment facility in Saugus.
Fidel Flores, the owner of Flores Party Rental, applied for a Common Victualer’s license to open a nonpermanent party facility at 36 Hamilton St. to host parties, wedding ceremonies, banquets, and baby showers. It can accommodate up to 100 people, but the town building inspector advised the owners to have no more than 70-80 people per party.
“We did speak to the inspector. He was the one who recommended us to do 70-80,” said Flores through his interpreter.
The Board of Selectmen showered Flores with questions on whether his establishment was going to serve alcohol, and what type of music he was going to have there, to find out if he needed an alcohol and entertainment license.
Flores said that they were going to invite a DJ to have Hispanic music, and that they were not going to serve alcohol, but they wanted to have a television set up.
“You will need an entertainment license,” said Selectwoman Debra Panetta.
The board suggested that if Flores Party Rental was going to host wedding parties, the attendees would want to have alcohol served, and the place would eventually need the alcohol license.
The initial intent of the owner to request the alcohol license on ad hoc basis for every party where alcohol will be served was not welcomed by the members of the board. They reasoned that since they only meet twice a month, scheduling such requests might be inconvenient for the owner.
It might also be expensive for Flores, since he would have to run an advertisement in the local newspaper every time, said Panetta. Whereas a beer and wine license for a year would cost him only $2,000.
“In the long run it would probably be in their best interest to at least consider that option,” said Board of Selectmen Chair Anthony Cogliano.
The proposed business is an extension to similar activities Flores runs in East Boston. However, as he explained to the board, the type of business he was doing there was a little different from what he proposed in Saugus.
In East Boston Flores operated a party business that set up parties at the residents’ houses, and in Saugus they were going to have a special designated place for the parties, which was a “completely different way of doing the business,” as Selectwoman Corinne Riley noted.
“This is a totally different business concept,” said Panetta.
The board took the request seriously and brought in their own business perspectives.
“If this sort of takes off, it might be a better option to have a small little bar and a small kitchenette there,” said Town Manager Scott Crabtree.
Saugus Health Inspector John Fralick supported that idea. He said that sounded like a better option to him to have a full-time, permanent food establishment in case the owner wants to go bigger in the future.
“It may require a little bit more in depth from all departments at the same time,” warned Fralick.
He said that in that case the owner will need to have a permanent place to accommodate the caterers, refrigerators, and sinks, and that would cut down from its original 12,000 square feet.
At the end of the meeting, the town building inspector arrived at the conclusion that the one bathroom that is currently installed at the location is only enough to accommodate 49 people, not 70-80. The board reasoned that the project was not thoroughly planned out yet.
“There is a lot of planning that you folks need to do,” said Panetta.
Cogliano suggested the owner develop a plan for the facility and deliver it to the next Board of Selectmen meeting.
“We want to help you,” said Fralick. “But there are certain things that are holding us back from voting on this license today.”
Oksana Kotkina can be reached at [email protected].
