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Star Market not taking proposed Fenway Wegmans lying down; to remodel ancient Fenway store

Shaw's has begun work to bring its aging Boylston Street Shaw's store into the 21st century with an extensive remodeling that it hopes will include one aisle devoted to the sort of liquor the increasingly discerning population of the Fenway demands, officials told the Boston Licensing Board today.

The board decides tomorrow whether to grant the Star Market a license to sell beer, wine and spirits in its rehabbed store, which will be rebuilt both inside and out.

Store attorney Joseph Hanley said that with the license, the store would dedicate 100 linear feet - or one aisle - to alcohol, as an accessory to its new gourmet and other food offerings. The store will not offer kegs or sell nips or single cans of beer, he said.

Hanley said there is "substantial public need" for both a renovated Star and liquor sales in a neighborhood that is growing by leaps and bounds with the addition of large numbers of new residential units on and near Boylston Street.

The owners of the nearby Landmark Center are planning a $500-million expansion that they hope will include a Wegmans, a New York chain that has sent some area residents into paroxysms of desire.

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Comments

was, "That seems like a tough fit into that old Sears complex, but maybe it will force that horrible Shaw's to up its game a bit." Prescient!

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Under Star Market is an unused basement which spans the entire property (including the parking lot). Why they haven't turned the basement into a parking garage is absolutely asinine.

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How suburban.

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No, underground parking is urban. Suburban is them wasting 1/3 of the property for a surface parking lot as they have now.

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Adding additional underground parking when the above ground lot is never fully utilized would be stupid any anti-urban.Putting the existing parking underground and getting rid of the surface lot entirely would be urban.

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You can't just build a ramp down to a basement and call it a parking garage. They would likely have to completely redo the foundation, which would at a minimum involve temporarily supporting the building above. That would probably end up being more expensive than demolishing the existing building and building a new one complete with parking garage.

Also the lot rarely fills up... many people walk from their apartments around the corner. The tiny/old building interior is the problem.

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That's interesting. Any idea why there is a basement there? Prior building on the site?

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Didn't that Star Market used to have a liquor license? I could swear I bought beer there years ago. Was there another Star Market right near there? Either way, that Star market can benefit from substantial improvement.

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I was dating a girl who was an undergraduate at Simmons many years ago, and I went there to buy beer. Dude in front of me at checkout was tall, like, really tall. Turns out it was Robert Parrish.

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I guess many of you haven't been to Shaws in a very long time. Shaws is looking better every day and has what I buy.

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Maybe now. I worked nearby in 1998, shopped there pretty regularly (I think it was Star Market then). Hadn't shopped there in years, but stopped by about three years ago and the layout was so unchanged, I walked straight to the matzo.

Felt all sentimental...

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It did , licensed as Sharon's , from the family that owned Warehouse Liquors in Lechmere Sq Camb. That was when the store was a Star Market. Shaw,s destroyed that chain . They would have the advantage if they spiffed the place up over any new guys with today's costs to start up.

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If I remember correctly, Shaws/Star Market Fenway had a liquor store inside, The section on the right of the entrance (behind the deli) was where the alcohol was sold. There was an entrance from the store and from outside. I think.

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They might renovate, but the chances of this store being there in 5 years are slim to none. Developers are already trying to buy this plot to develop it upwards.

To be honest, they shouldn't even bother. Target will be open next year and Wegmans in 2016.

It's one of the few plots of land remaining. HoJo, McDonalds, Burger King, Subway/Gas Station, etc. are all gone. It will be great to see the Baseball Tavern building razed and rebuilt, too.

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Baseball Tavern's lot is height restricted to grandfather the roof deck. If anything is built on that block it will be a quirky last tenement style holdout. Some lawyer made good money on that one.

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