NEWBURY – With the former owner of the Plum Island Grille facing a felony criminal charge for vandalizing the popular, but now closed restaurant, property owner Mark Friery is planning to tell the town in the next couple of weeks that he will seek permits to build four two-story condos with ocean views on the site that would be in keeping with the neighborhood.
Friery has been trying to sell the site at 2 Plum Island Blvd. for months to another restaurateur, but because of the damage done to the building, no owner/operator of a restaurant has made an offer.
“I would have already sold it if it weren’t torn up,” said North Shore Realty’s Frank Bertolino, who is listing the property at $1.9 million.
Francis Broadbery, the former owner of the PI Grille, is facing an arraignment this month in Newburyport District Court for the criminal felony of malicious destruction of property in excess of $1,200. According to the Newbury police report, Broadbery and friends in 2023 took power saws to the bar tops, causing considerable damage to the wood, including the main bar that had a hand-painted seascape motif on it.
In his statement to the Newbury Police, Friery wrote about the grille after Broadbery left: “The entire place was a filthy mess, complete with horrible smells, two decaying rats, grime everywhere.” The 20-foot mosaic bar, a 10-foot mahogany extension to this bar and a 20-inch elbow bar and the walls attached were all “removed the hard way.”
Similarly, a rooftop sign and a decorative surfboard were also removed by the chain saws, he wrote in his official statement.
To restore the damage so a new restaurant or bar could move in to the space would be prohibitively expensive for most restaurateurs, Friery said.
Attorney Douglas Deschenes with Finneran and Nicholson wrote a legal opinion to Friery, who owns Rinkoo-Tei Realty, calling the site a “unique property with significant redevelopment potential.”
Friery now plans to seek the town of Newbury’s approval for building condos. The key to winning that approval, according to Deschenes, is that whatever the use for the property has the same or less negative impact on the site than the restaurant.
A similar-sized restaurant or a single-family home with an apartment would be “grandfathered,” or guaranteed to be approved.
The condo construction would likely have to have a special permit from the town.
Plum Island is a barrier island about 11 miles long, divided between a protected nature preserve and a thriving beach community.
The corner lot where the PI Grille has been since 1998 has frontage on both Plum Island Boulevard and Sunset Drive and is “mere minutes to the ocean,” Bertolino wrote. It offers “some of the best sunsets in the Newburyport area.”
Residences could have 35-foot-high rooftop decks that would have views of the ocean as well as the marsh, the Realtor wrote. The condos would have to be built on stilts because of the rising tides affecting the island.
Friery could sell the property under Newbury zoning rules for a single-family home of about 5,000 square feet. But a Plum Island resident himself, Friery believes four 1,500 square foot, two-story condos, like those springing up around the island, would be more attractive and fit the neighborhood.
For the damage done to the restaurant the district court ordered Broadbery to pay Friery $126,102.37 in compensation. But Broadbery filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy on Sept. 3, which makes collecting the judgement difficult.
Building residences instead of replacing the grille with another restaurant will likely please the town planners and the neighbors, Friery believes, although he concedes that the grille will be missed by many locals.
The grille, which seated 125, was across the turnpike at the entrance to the island from the popular 160-seat Sunset Club. While both restaurants have parking lots, finding spaces for dozens of cars, many of them on the sides of the roads, often snarled traffic.
Four condos with parking underneath the homes would not create a traffic challenge, according to the property owner.
