Paul Bass Photos
The fence has come down at the fire site.
Gremse: Nixes 500 Blake.
Ronald Groves has begun planning to rebuild Delaney’s Restaurant & Tap Room — if he can find the $2 million or more he needs.
That’s a big if.
A company Groves runs owns the property at the corner of Whalley and Central Avenue that perished Aug. 25 in a dramatic all-night fire in the heart of Westville Village. The ground floor of the two-story building housed the popular Delaney’s.
Both Groves, the landlord, and Peter Gremse, owner of Delaney’s, said this week that they’ve been discussing trying to reopen Delaney’s in the same spot.
Westville Village Renaissance’s Michel Crotta cleaning up around the site.
“I’ve been meeting with architects and a construction company. It’s a question of making the numbers work,” Groves said Tuesday. “My intention is to rebuild and to have Peter as a tenant.”
First Groves, a commercial realtor whose family ate regularly at the Cape Codder (the predecessor to Delaney’s) when he was growing up in Westville, has to line up the money. He said it would cost “more than $2 million” to rebuild. He’s confident the insurance money would cover no more than a third to a half of that cost — and he still has months of wrangling ahead with his insurance company to recover from losses in the fire.
Groves ruled out finding equity partners to help him. Instead, he’s looking to city and state governments for information about grants and other potential help. He’s been in conversation with development offices from both governments. “The city’s been cooperative. But I’m really going to need some help from the state and city to make it work,” he said.
The amount of money he can obtain will determine whether a new building would have just one story for the restaurant, or one or two additional floors for rental housing, he said.
Would he otherwise sell the property? “Anything’s possible,” he said.
“I’ve got to fight for my insurance money too. All my records went up” in the fire, Gremse (pictured at the scene of the fire) told the Independent. “We basically have to reconstruct the whole business backwards. It’s going to take some time,” probably six months, he said.
He’s not looking to reopen Delaney’s somewhere else. He quashed a rumor making the rounds in Westville that he might seek to reopen in the long-vacant home of the former 500 Blake Street restaurant. “I’m in no position to anywhere” that big, he said. He’d prefer to reopen at the old spot at Whalley and Central, he said. “I love the site. As long as [Groves] can do it, I’d rather stay where I am. He’s giving me weekly updates.” In the meantime, he has added some “iconic” Delaney’s favorites — such as Buffalo tenders, spicy calamari, spinach dip — to the menu at his restaurant a block away, Stone Hearth.
City Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli said his office has been working with Groves. They’ve discussed existing programs that offer assessment deferral and facade improvements. “It’s still early in the process,” Piscitelli said. “It won’t happen overnight.”
Meanwhile, a construction fence has come down from the site, where the rubble has been cleaned away and land filled in. Westville Alder Adam Marchand (pictured) stopped by Thursday and took note of the dozen of so trees that somehow survived the blaze. Marchand said it’s unclear whether the trees will remain there long-term, or if they sustained fatal root damage not visible from aboveground.
Neither the city nor the state should fund any part of this project. It's a private, for profit entity that has not and will not bring any good paying, long-term jobs to New Haven. With regards to his "records" most should have been audited and kept with his accountants. Similarly, the insurance documents should be in duplicate with a broker.
Moreover, if he is sincere about rebuilding the laughable estimated amount $600,000 is roughly 1/3 of the amount needed, which is enough to secure a short-term construction loan pending refinance upon completion. Sadly, he is looking to rebuilding without taking on a new mortgage, providing him with a free $2M and beautiful cashflow from a new property.
To the extent he was not insured at 100% replacement value, that was on him as a property owner. It was not the fault of the taxpayers of this city. I wish him luck but not the city or state's expense.