BELCHERTOWN — Masa Mexicano closed its Belchertown location 10 months after opening reportedly due to a neighbor’s alleged behavior and a lawsuit over noise and light issues — a decision that has taken social media by storm with comments in support of the restaurant.
Rumors began circulating about the closure of the restaurant at 5 N. Main St. after Google listed the business as “temporary closed.” Former Masa Mexicano employee and lifelong Belchertown resident Madison Sullivan confirmed this week that owner Roberto Saravia told the staff he would permanently close the location on Jan. 26. On Friday, Masa Mexicano confirmed the closure on social media.
“To our Belchertown customers: you have been nothing short of wonderful,” the post said. “We are deeply grateful to everyone who supported us, showed up for us, and helped build such a strong, caring community around our business. Thank you for being part of that chapter with us.”
According to Sullivan, Saravia made a “last-minute decision” to close due to financial strain from the pending lawsuit and repeated alleged verbal allocations with Sean Donovan, who owns a neighboring business called Green Light Bicycle Shop. Donovan sued the restaurant in Eastern Hampshire District Court on Nov. 5, 2025, saying that the business was disturbing his sleep with bright lights and sound from an industrial cooling unit.
Saravia could not be reached for comment this week. Saravia’s lawyer, attorney Peter Lane from Fierst Bloomberg Ohm LLP in Northampton, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Reached by phone on Friday, Donovan disputes that his lawsuit relates to the closure of the Mexican restaurant, instead claiming the establishment did not have a lot of foot traffic. He adds that he gave Saravia plenty of opportunities to remove the cooling unit and kept legal proceedings to a minimum.
“My intention was never to see this place closed,” Donovan said. “I’d prefer to have a business next door because it helps my business. Having an empty store does not help my business.”
Masa Mexicano serves authentic Mexican cuisine, from tacos and tortas to quesadillas and fried plantains. After five years in Florence, the restaurant expanded into Belchertown in March 2025. Saravia previously told the Gazette he chose Belchertown for his second location to bring his authentic cuisine to a town with few Mexican restaurants.
Hostility between neighbors
Sullivan worked at Masa Mexicano from its grand opening to its closure and witnessed Donovan’s behavior. The issues began in August and progressively occurred more frequently. She said she saw Donovan staring into the windows of the restaurant and overheard him yelling at Saravia on the side of the property. Some of the comments aimed at the El Salvadorian restaurateur, she claimed, involved his status as an immigrant.
“We were definitely uncomfortable and it caused a really weird work environment, ” Sullivan said. “It was very uncomfortable and awkward to have customers come in while we had to have a lawyer in the restaurant, or we had police in the restaurant or when he was in the back of the parking lot staring at us through the windows.”
Donovan said he did sometimes look at the restaurant out the window or on the porch of his apartment, but never stared or approached any employees. He claims the lawsuit does not relate to race and he did not say anything xenophobic. Rather, Saravia is “weaponizing his status as an immigrant” to hurt his business.
“There are no facts of racist slurs, xenophobia [or] harassment. I confronted Roberto on my property line at my front door,” he said.
Call logs from the Wilbraham Regional Dispatch from September 2025 to December 2025 show police officers visited the properties often. Masa Mexicano called the police three times reporting “harassment” from a neighbor through verbal altercations, text messages and letters that made the caller feel threatened.
Police also received 10 calls from Green Light Bicycle Shop regarding noise complaints and harassment in the same four-month time span. The noise violations relate to the industrial cooling unit in between the two businesses.
Court case
In the lawsuit, Donovan’s says the industrial cooling machine creates a “loud, obnoxious, wavering electrical humming and sheet metal sound.” Both the unit and nearby lights disturb his sleep, the complaint said. The HVAC unit also blows onto “crumbling” asbestos roofing.
“I live here,” Donovan said. “Other people might not be sensitive to the noise, but I am. My child is. She can hear it in her bedroom.”
In addition to changing the light bulb to a lower wattage and removing the unit, Donovan is requesting the court grant a $200 penalty for each day the “electrical noise” continued after the complaint was filed.
“I’ve been trying to settle this lawsuit ever since it began. Instead of dealing with the noise he has hired a lawyer and is digging in his heals,” he said. “I think this is a situation where he wants to burn down his business to burn down mine.”
According to the complaint, Saravia requested property owners Steve and Kristina Weibel file a trespass order against Donovan. Saravia told authorities Donovan violated the trespass order on Nov. 6 by coming onto his property during a verbal quarrel, the call log reports.
Sullivan said anytime she was working the evening shift, employees turned off the lights before or around closing at 9 p.m. She and her family never heard any noise from the unit, she said.
Reactions on social media
Sullivan launched a GoFundMe on Tuesday to help Saravia pay for the lawsuit and possibly open a new Belchertown location. The fundraiser page said the case had become a “legal and financial burden,” contributing to Masa Mexicano’s closure. So far, she’s raised $11,287.
When the news about Masa Mexicano’s closure spread online, some Belchertown residents erupted with comments of support for Saravia and vented frustrations with Donovan. Some residents pulled up Donovan’s past social media posts from 2020 and 2017 regarding previous lawsuits against a landlord and noise complaints against the Fire Department and the Belchertown Town Fair.
On the other hand, Donovan said he sees the outpouring of social media posts as a “torture mob” determined to bring his business down and run him out of town.