FALL RIVER — The city has long had the reputation of having fantastic dining. It’s also currently in the midst of a scorching hot real estate market with several long-beloved eateries for sale. But selling restaurants isn’t easy.
On the market right now are Fall River landmarks like Patti’s Pierogis, Mee Sum and O Gil, longstanding hotspots whose multicultural cuisine reflects the city’s history as a haven for immigrants. Newer eateries with promise, like Towne House and 19 Prime, are up for grabs. The Historic Abbey, the Rock Street restaurant and function hall that was once Lizzie Borden’s church, was put on the market last summer. It too is still available.
Some have lingered for months or years. Some have seen drastic drops in their asking price.
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Yet triple-deckers and single-family homes, even in rough shape, get snapped up quickly. So why is selling a restaurant challenging?
“All the ones that aren’t selling, they come with their own pile of issues,” said Holly Bronhard, a Realtor with eXp Realty. “I don’t think it has anything to do with the market.”
Parking in Fall River is a problem for restaurant owners
The cliche that real estate is about three things — location, location, location — is as true in Fall River as it is anywhere else.
Add to the list a fourth item: parking.
“If you buy a restaurant in a congested neighborhood, good luck,” Bronhard said. “People say, ‘I’d love to come but I can’t find a place to park.’”
O Gil has been serving up classic Portuguese American fare at its County Street location since 1991. Owners Victor Fagundo and Felisberto Souza put the business on the market in December for just under $1 million, complete with kitchen equipment and liquor license. They’ve since dropped their asking price to $749,000. With still no takers, they’ve recently obtained permission from the Zoning Board of Appeals to convert the restaurant into two apartments to make a sale more appealing to buyers.
In the meantime, pending a sale, the restaurant is still open for business.
“The problem with O Gil’s is all those side streets all off County,” said Bronhard. “Those things are chock full of three-families, six-families, three-families. So there’s 20 cars for every gosh-darn house. If you want to go to that restaurant, there’s no place to park.”
The restaurant, though popular with longtime locals, can be hard to find for newcomers who may be liable to drive right past it their first time, tucked away in a neighborhood that’s overwhelmingly residential. Surrounding it are narrow streets, many of them one-ways; on the east side of County are deceptively long dead-ends.
O Gil is not in a commercial cluster — for anyone living outside walking range, it’s a destination you get to by car and hope you can find a spot among the residents. If you can’t find one, you get frustrated or leave.
The O Gil owners also own a parking lot a block away. The lot, however, is not part of the real estate listing; the original listing noted that the lot could be had as a separate transaction but included no asking price.
The owners have also obtained a variance to potentially divide the parking lot into two house lots, where a triplex and a single-family home can be built.
Over on Seabury Street, Nonna’s Ice Cream Shoppe is for sale for $250,000, a drop from its initial asking price of $275,000. On Bedford Street, Mr. Chicken is for sale for $799,000. Both rely on scant street parking — but those businesses are a bit different. Customers don’t linger. They grab their ice cream cones, pick up their takeout, and move on.
“Somehow we all figure it out every time we go to New Boston Bakery every day. But people come and people go kind of quickly,” Bronhard said. “You’re not going there for dinner for two and a half hours.”
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Business clustering makes neighborhoods a destination
Restaurants like Patti’s Pierogis (originally listed for $609,000, now cut to $445,000) and Mee Sum (recently listed at $449,000) are both for sale with kitchen equipment included.
Bronhard said those businesses may pose a challenge to sell partially because of their niche cuisine styles — not every potential restaurateur wants to, or can, jump into the world of Polish or Chinese food.
Also making those sales challenging is both restaurants, though in commercial areas, are not in ideal business clusters. While Patti’s has a small lot in front of its building, Mee Sum relies on street parking. Any new restaurant owner would take these things into consideration.
“We don’t have enough of a draw for them to have valet on a nightly basis like they do on Federal Hill because you don’t have any business clustering,” Bronhard said.
Many Fall River restaurants are solitary islands in seas of residential neighborhoods or unrelated businesses. Bronhard pointed to places like Atwells Avenue in Providence and Warren, Rhode Island, where competition helps. Having multiple restaurants close to each other can make the neighborhood itself a destination. That makes the property more valuable.
There are no restaurants anywhere near Patti’s. When it comes to food choices in the immediate area of Mee Sum, she said, “You’ve got McDonald’s and now there’s Christopher’s.”
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Warren, which thrives with multiple dining options along its waterfront, also isn’t known for being an easy place to park — in the historic part of town, its streets are narrower than Fall River’s and frequently have one-way traffic too.
The secret weapon there is something South Main Street doesn’t yet have: quaintness and the perception of safety.
“Talk about not having parking, going to dinner in Warren. But people figure it out,” Bronhard said. “They’re not in an inner city, so they don’t mind if they have to walk two blocks.”
Overcoming Fall River’s reputation of having a dead downtown
Bronhard pointed to a fairly easy recent restaurant sale: Magoni’s in Somerset to the Gorman family, which owns Sakonnet River Grille, Four Corners Grille and Palmer River Grille in Tiverton and Warren. She said Magoni’s has a great location with a water view and plenty of parking. It has another secret ingredient.
“There’s a history of a successful business at that venue,” she said.
In some cases, a reputation having little to do with a location can make it a difficult sell, Bronhard said.
In October 2022, the owners of the Towne House on Purchase Street put the business on the market for $2.9 million. Bronhard said it’s still for sale. The upscale facility includes the Douro Steakhouse, Xcafe Coffee Shop, Tapas & Oyster Bar and the Vinhoteca function room.
Bronhard said its being connected to former mayor and convicted felon Jasiel Correia “didn’t help.”
19 Prime, across Sullivan Drive from Government Center, is asking $239,000.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t had the revitalization downtown that we tried to,” Bronhard said.
As its name implies, it should be in a prime spot. The Third Street parking garage is nearby, and there’s easy access to the restaurant from elsewhere in the city. A patio allows for outdoor dining in the warmer months.
But Fall River’s downtown is largely populated by people who are over 55 or on fixed incomes, many of whom aren’t the customer base for fine dining. Bronhard said the clustering downtown is poor — the few businesses open downtown don’t always complement each other. Downtown Fall River isn’t a destination.
“Whereas downtown New Bedford is not like that,” she said. “You’ve got a lot of law offices. There’s a lot of retail. There’s a lot of walkability. You’ve got the Whaling Museum. It’s a different dynamic over there, which is wonderful.”
In the past decade, the 19 Prime spot has been occupied by Bella Restaurant, then CAV. None lasted very long. It’s a reputation a new owner would have to work hard to overcome — and part of that is out of their control.
“There’s been a lot of turnover because we don’t have a downtown,” Bronhard said. “That’s pretty much the bottom line.”
Dan Medeiros can be reached at dmedeiros@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.