EASTHAMPTON – One of the city’s 25 liquor licenses is up for auction on Wednesday morning with a minimum bid of $25,000.
The liquor license formerly belonging to the Peter Pan Cafe at 46 Pleasant St. will be on the auction block at the city’s Municipal Building at 50 Payson Ave. at 11 a.m. The seven-day, all alcohol license was seized by the state Department of Revenue (DOR) for nonpayment of taxes by the bar’s ownership.
According to public disclosure records by the DOR, the owners owed the state $68,457 in back taxes. The bar is owned by Sandra Wheeler and Robert LaBombard through their corporation Harrilee LLC. At this time, the property is still under Harrilee ownership and only the liquor license has been seized, according to LaBombard.
A spokeswoman from the DOR declined to comment for this story. LaBombard said that the liquor license was seized by the state “a few weeks ago.”
“We had to close in December for personal reasons,” LaBombard said on Tuesday. “Thank you all for the patronage in the past 12 years.”
The bar originally opened as the Peter Pan Tavern in 1945, and was purchased by Wheeler and LaBombard in 2007.
According to the state Registry of Deeds, state tax liens were placed on Harrilee in March 2016 for unpaid taxes dating back to March 2015. In September 2017, the corporation was released from a federal tax lien originally issued in December 2012.
Peter Pan Cafe nearly closed its doors to the public in December 2014. The state seized the property for $58,000 in unpaid meals and withholding taxes, but a deal was reached between the owners and DOR that kept the bar open for another four years.
The bar was open 365 days of the year under Wheeler and LaBombard and it became a destination for those alone on the holidays to find companionship.
The auction on Wednesday will be run by E. F. Smith & Son Restaurant of Quincy. A 10 percent buyer’s premium will be added to the final bid price.
In 2004, the former Harry’s Cafe on Parsons Street was seized for nonpayment of taxes and the establishment’s liquor license was purchased by John Casey Douglass, owner of the Apollo Grill, for $35,000 at an auction.
In neighboring Northampton, the former One Bar & Grill’s liquor license sold for $52,000 at auction in 2017 and was purchased by PeoplesBank, the entity that had put it up for auction after the bar owners pledged it to the bank as collateral for a loan. The starting bid for that license was $50,000.
Luis Fieldman can be reached at lfieldman@gazettenet.com