The Moose may finally be moving a few blocks to Main Street.
Lodge 1471, which for more than 90 years has been happily based in a historic old home fallen on hard times next to City Hall, believes and hopes it has found its future - in the Green Tavern.
"We're pretty excited," said Al Chianciola, a member of the board of officers.
The Zoning Board of Appeals will have a thing to say about the move.
The local corps of Moose - more than 300 active members, more women than men, according to an officer of the fraternal order - has agreed to buy the Green Tavern building at 264 Main St. for $850,000, according to the owner, Marilyn LeBlanc.
"I hope it's a go," said LeBlanc, who not only stands to gain from the sale of the property but from the sale of the Green Tavern's liquor license as well. She guessed the liquor license would fetch as much as $100,000 on the open market, which is how liquor licenses are transferred.
The lodge put itself in the need to move five years ago.
It was then the Moose sold its historic home to the Cape Ann Historical Association. At the time the association planned to raze the old lodge, which began around 1806 as the fine home of merchant David Pearce.
The association put the razing on permanent hold when a movement arose to save what is left of the Pearce homestead. And with the Moose frustrated in its initial plan to move into a storefront in the West End (now occupied by the restaurant, La Trattoria), the lodge began leasing its old digs and looked for a new permanent home.
Chianciola said one of the Moose members heard that LeBlanc was looking to sell.
Negotiations proceeded, and now the Moose must seek zoning relief.
The Green Tavern is not required by the zoning code to have parking for its customers, but the code requires parking for a club - technically what the Moose is.
Moose attorney Robert Coakley said the zoning code requires one space for every four seats or 100 square feet of space, which, according to Chianciola, equates to at least 20 spaces.
"It's fairly burdensome," Coakley said.
Coakley will make the case for relief at Thursday's Zoning Board of Appeals hearing. The hearing starts at 7 p.m. in Kyrouz Auditorium at City Hall.
He said the Moose Lodge also needs the OK of the Licensing Board to move a liquor license and the approval of City Council to move downtown.
Lodge 1471, which for more than 90 years has been happily based in a historic old home fallen on hard times next to City Hall, believes and hopes it has found its future - in the Green Tavern.
"We're pretty excited," said Al Chianciola, a member of the board of officers.
The Zoning Board of Appeals will have a thing to say about the move.
The local corps of Moose - more than 300 active members, more women than men, according to an officer of the fraternal order - has agreed to buy the Green Tavern building at 264 Main St. for $850,000, according to the owner, Marilyn LeBlanc.
"I hope it's a go," said LeBlanc, who not only stands to gain from the sale of the property but from the sale of the Green Tavern's liquor license as well. She guessed the liquor license would fetch as much as $100,000 on the open market, which is how liquor licenses are transferred.
The lodge put itself in the need to move five years ago.
It was then the Moose sold its historic home to the Cape Ann Historical Association. At the time the association planned to raze the old lodge, which began around 1806 as the fine home of merchant David Pearce.
The association put the razing on permanent hold when a movement arose to save what is left of the Pearce homestead. And with the Moose frustrated in its initial plan to move into a storefront in the West End (now occupied by the restaurant, La Trattoria), the lodge began leasing its old digs and looked for a new permanent home.
Chianciola said one of the Moose members heard that LeBlanc was looking to sell.
Negotiations proceeded, and now the Moose must seek zoning relief.
The Green Tavern is not required by the zoning code to have parking for its customers, but the code requires parking for a club - technically what the Moose is.
Moose attorney Robert Coakley said the zoning code requires one space for every four seats or 100 square feet of space, which, according to Chianciola, equates to at least 20 spaces.
"It's fairly burdensome," Coakley said.
Coakley will make the case for relief at Thursday's Zoning Board of Appeals hearing. The hearing starts at 7 p.m. in Kyrouz Auditorium at City Hall.
He said the Moose Lodge also needs the OK of the Licensing Board to move a liquor license and the approval of City Council to move downtown.
Chianciola said he hopes the city will embrace the move the way it didn't hanker to welcome the lodge to the West End.
A group of merchants put up a political and legal fence that effectively kept the Moose out of what at the time was a failed restaurant, Josie D's, which had replaced a Middle Eastern restaurant.
Coakley said the same concerns should not apply to the Moose's desire to replace the Green Tavern.
The Moose membership, who by all public accounts in the lodge's previous campaign to move into the West End, are a gentle, charitable and well-behaved bunch. The Police Department submitted a letter to that effect to the City Council during its 2004 hearings.
The Green Tavern, on the other hand, operates under a 17-hour liquor license, which allows business to begin at 8 a.m. Such a license is prized.
The last recently sold license is believed to have brought $60,000, according to local attorneys Mark Nestor and Michele Harrison.
Demand is increasing.
Jay McNiff and Todd Twombly have plans to build a restaurant in their Station Place Shopping Center, and Sam Park has plans for multiple restaurants and a hotel in the proposed Gloucester Crossing Shopping Center.
On Park's behalf, attorney Harrison said, "I have dibs" on the Green Tavern license.
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