BEVERLY — With long-awaited approval from the state now in hand, Black Cow owner Joseph Leone said he is ready to proceed with his plan to build a restaurant on the city's waterfront.
"We're committed, and we're going forward," Leone said. "It feels good."
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection granted a license for the project last week.
Leone, who owns Black Cow restaurants in Hamilton and Newburyport and a Black Cow Express in Salem, first proposed building a restaurant in Beverly in 2006. His plan was greeted enthusiastically by city officials, who had been trying to entice private developers to build on land at the base of the Beverly-Salem bridge since the city purchased the property in 1996.
Leone's project was approved by the city's Planning Board in 2008, but was held up when Beverly Port Marina owner Frank Kinzie filed an appeal over a waterway license granted by the DEP. The license was needed because the restaurant would be built in a "designated port area," one of 12 such ports established in 1978 as a way to preserve the state's working waterfronts.
Kinzie, whose marina is next door, submitted his own proposal for the site, a boatyard, which he said was more in line with a working waterfront. But the DEP doubted the feasibility of the project and denied the appeal.
Kinzie said Thursday that he has not decided if he will file another appeal. He declined to comment further.
Mayor Bill Scanlon said the city will wait out the appeal period, then sign a 30-year lease with Leone to use the land. Scanlon said the two sides have reached an agreement on most of the terms of the lease. He declined to say how much the agreement requires Leone to pay the city until the lease is finalized. Leone will also pay property taxes based on the value of the restaurant, Scanlon said.
Leone had also proposed taking over management of one of the two city-owned marinas on the waterfront, but Scanlon said that is "very unlikely" to happen.
The restaurant will have 200 seats, including a deck overlooking the water and 50 on-site parking spaces. As a designated port area, the site is required to have a "water-dependent" use. To fulfill that obligation, Leone said a business called Coastal Discoveries, which provides educational boat rides for children, will operate out of the first floor of the building.
In his 2006 proposal, Leone said he would spend $1.5 million to build the restaurant and another $1 million in improvements to the area. Thursday, he said he would have to re-examine those figures, but "It's probably close to that."
Scanlon said the site is well-prepared for the arrival of the restaurant with the near-completion of a $2.5 million project that included renovation of the city's recreational marina and rebuilding of a plaza along the waterfront. The city's commercial marina is due for a $1.5 million makeover next year. Both of those projects are being paid for with state grants.
The former McDonald's restaurant, which closed in 1995 and is being used to store the city's recycling bins, will be torn down to make way for the restaurant. The area, known as Glover's Wharf, also includes the Beverly harbormaster's office, a public pier, a small park and the Ferryway public landing. The Hannah, the first ship commissioned by George Washington in the Continental Navy, first sailed from the site in 1775.
"Finally we have a great site there that people see when they drive over the bridge and enter into the city," said Leone, a former Swampscott resident who moved to Beverly seven years ago.
"And the restaurant will be the frosting."
Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2675 or pleighton@salemnews.com.
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