Worcester Business Journal

8 Worcester Business Journal | October 26, 2020 | wbjournal.com PHOTO | GRANT WELKER e roots of the buzzy restaurant scenes communities like Worcester, Sturbridge and Marlborough have created can be traced to their decision to sidestep the state's liquor license cap BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor W hen a would-be restaurateur ap- proaches Worcester city officials with a plan to open a new eatery, not so much stands in the way procedurally – at least compared to most Massachusetts cities and towns. Worcester and two dozen other com- munities across the state have no cap on the number of liquor licenses they can approve, an economic development tool public officials say gives a leg up in being able to approve with relative quickness a proposed restaurant, bar or brewery. In this 2020 joint reporting project with the Worcester Business Journal and the Worcester Regional Research Bureau, the findings show communities without a liquor license cap for on-site consump- tion – a list also including Marlborough, Franklin and Sturbridge – oen have more establishments than those without one, and in many cases, far more. Among those 25 statewide commu- nities without a quota, active licenses exceed what those cities and towns would theoretically be capped by 44%. In other words, they've taken advantage of the ability to have more restaurants, the related buzz coming from being known as a restaurant destination, and a bigger economic engine attracting people eating and dining in town. "Cities and towns like restaurants because we can't be internet-ed out of business," said Bob Luz, the president and CEO of the Westborough-based Massachusetts Restaurant Association. "ey want it because it brings a vibrancy to downtowns." e great majority of the remaining Massachusetts cities and towns are forced to turn to the state Legislature for special approval if they want to approve more restaurants, bars or breweries, putting them at the mercy of the state's bureaucracy if they want to make a larg- er hospitality industry a bigger portion of the local economies. A huge economic tool Worcester, which has the third most active liquor licenses in Massachusetts behind Boston and Cambridge, hasn't had a license cap since the City Council voted to li the quota in 1983. "Not having a cap really reduces the scarcity of licenses, so it tends to be cheaper," said Peter Dunn, Worcester's chief development officer. "It reduces the barrier to entry, and helps get restau- rateurs started." e absence of a cap gives businesses two other things they highly value, Dunn said: certainty and time. ey can be sure there will be a license available to them, and the process for obtaining a license is as simple as winning approval from the License Commission, a board oen meeting twice a month. In the last decade, the number of active licenses in the city has grown by 5%, totaling more than 200. Worcester's licenses tend to be newer: 43% have been issued in the past five years, compared to a statewide average of 38%, according to the WBJ/WRRB analysis. Other Central Massachusetts commu- nities without a cap have found a built-in advantage when hopeful restaurateurs come with plans for a new business. "e liquor license situation is a huge tool we have," said Arthur Vigeant, the mayor of Marlborough, which has 64 active licenses – far more than the 49 it would be limited to under the state's cap. "We can meet with the Licensing Board and get one immediately instead of having to go to the Legislatures like most other communities need to do," Vigeant said. Marlborough city officials have been pushing to bring more restaurants, bars and breweries to downtown, hoping to keep more workers from its big office complexes in the city past the workday. It has gone as far as soliciting brewpubs in 2017 with a marketing campaign and generous incentives: up to $15,000 for rent and up to $10,000 for equipment. Downtown breweries in Marlborough have had mixed success since, but today two are operating in there today. "We're working with every restaurant we can because they're the drivers right now," Vigeant said of the business' ability to attract people to a downtown that can get quiet at night. "ey get people out and about." Vigeant's counterparts in other towns see it similarly. Next door in Hudson, Ex- No Limits Volturno, on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester, has taken advantage of outdoor space. Altruist Brewing Co., one of more than 30 liquor establishments in Sturbridge. A collaboration between Worcester Business Journal and the Worcester Regional Research Bureau No Limits is the result of a multi-month collaboration between WBJ and the Worcester Regional Research Bureau. To read the full report by the WRRB, visit www.wrrb.org. WBJ also will release in the coming weeks a special digital edition combining the No Limits project with the full WRRB report on WBJournal.com. PHOTO | GRANT WELKER

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