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09/01/2015 02:20 PMMore than a month after the Stone House Restaurant closed its doors, questions continue to circulate around the future use of the building. The restaurant was purchased for $2.75 million by Oceanco, LLC, a business services company owned by Michael and David Rothberg, trustees of Jonathan M. Rothberg.
Only a week after closing, Pa’s Place opened in the former Little Stone House. While it has only been open for a few weeks, the reasonable success of the restaurant has helped calm fears of the Guilford docks taking an economic hit, according to Economic Development Coordinator Brian McGlone.
“People seem to be fairly happy with Pa’s Place so far,” he said. “And all of the marina slips are still full, so the people that are going to want to come and enjoy their boats will still be there. I don’t really think the closing is going to have a negative impact on the marina itself.”
The future of the original Stone House Restaurant is still up in the air.
Town Planner George Kral said the owner had only applied for one permit thus far.
“He applied for permits to replace windows and doors in the former Stone House restaurant,” he said. “The permit was granted last week I believe.”
In regard to the future use of the building, Kral said the owner indicated in his permit application that he does not intend to change the original zoned use of the building.
“If he is planning on changing the use from the previous use, then he needs approval from Planning and Zoning,” he said. “The owner has indicated that he is not intending to change the use, that the window replacements and the doors are for the continuation of the previous use, which is restaurant.”
Kral said this initial permit is not an indication, one way or the other, that there will or won’t be a restaurant in the space.
“ ... whether or not he actually intends to have a restaurant their remains to be seen,” he said.
Additionally, the owner has cleared out a visible section of reeds behind the old Little Stone House building.
“As I understand it, the majority of the septic tanks or the leaching fields are over in that area,” said McGlone. “Those areas were cleared to assess the condition of the septic and as such, since there was no repair work done or any expansion work done they did not need any formal permits.”
Kral said the set up of the restaurant’s septic system is complex.
“There is a history of incremental improvements to the septic system at that location,” he said. “The septic system for the restaurant across the street, The Mooring, is also on the old Stone House property, so the new owner is just trying to figure out what is connected to what.”
McGlone said thus far a majority of the work has just been to assess the condition of the building.
“As I understand it, they have done a lot of gutting of the interior to better understand what might need to be done whether it be in plumbing or heating or electrical,” he said. “I think they are doing a lot of assessments right now and they are working with an architect to assess the overall building.”
As speculation continues as to the possible use of the space as an office building, or possibly a restaurant, McGlone said he hopes the building continues to benefit the town.
“If it is used for either purpose there is certainly the assumption that it would continue to serve local Guilford people and hopefully attract more people to town,” he said. “But at this point it is too early to assess a possible economic impact.”