BBQ restaurant plan in Waterford goes up in smoke
New Mago Point building will become offices instead
Across Niantic Bay from the beachside food shack that Pete Daversa has opened at Crescent Beach, he can see the sun shining off the copper roof of what he and his brother, Paul, once envisioned as a destination barbecue restaurant.
But while the building is almost finished, the Mago Point Smokehouse will not open, Paul Daversa said Monday. Unexpected construction costs and a parking shortage meant the restaurant would never make enough profit to cover the cost of the building.
The idea was an optimistic one. Two East Lyme natives, Paul Daversa — the CEO of a tech recruitment firm with offices in New York, California, Washington, D.C., Florida and Connecticut — and Pete Daversa, a nationally known barbecue chef — would team up and make sleepy Mago Point the barbecue capital of Connecticut.
Paul Daversa bought the former site of seafood restaurant Unk’s By the Bay in 2014. Unk’s, a Mago Point landmark, opened as a clam shack in the 1930s. After closing in 2010, it briefly became an Italian restaurant
called Lisa's Landing, which closed less than a year later.
The dilapidated building was one of several casualties of the 1991 construction of the Route 156 bridge, which Mago Point residents say has turned it into a “flyover” neighborhood and hindered development.
Daversa demolished the building last year, saying that multi-million-dollar investment into the property was “the ... riskiest investment either of us have made in our professional careers,” but one that could turn Mago Point into a thriving business environment.
The plan had to be scaled down even before construction began and an additional residential development above the restaurant was nixed because the property's location in a FEMA-regulated flood zone made that idea too expensive. Daversa later submitted a design for approval by the town's Planning and Zoning Commission for a 4,500-square-foot restaurant on the site, surrounded by 1,800 square feet of outdoor deck space facing the Niantic River.
Once the brothers hired a construction manager from Boston to start the project, he said Monday, it took more than $1 million to build the concrete base that would bring the restaurant up to the FEMA-required 15 feet off the ground.
Several other “miscalculations” of the cost of building materials and the amount of parking space let the brothers to decide in early June that it was time to change the plan.
Paul Daversa will continue to develop the property as the newest outpost of his firm, Daversa Partners. The firm was planning to open an office in Boston soon, he said Monday, but instead will use the Mago Point building — copper roof and all — as office space.
“Our modeling went from not returning capital (until) after 15 years to not returning capital ever,” he said. “No signs were coming up that this was a sound business move.”
Because the building was constructed solely with Daversa's money, the endeavor has not left any debt and he said all the contractors, architects and engineers have been paid.
He said the Mago Point office will employ about 20 people and will serve as a stepping stone for local recent college graduates to enter Daversa Partners before moving to the firm's other locations, and is more likely than a restaurant to generate a return on his capital investment.
“It may not be great ribs and chicken, but it's what we're hoping to do,” he said.
The firm has signed a 15-year lease to use the property, he said.
Waterford First Selectman Daniel Steward said he's optimistic that the offices still stand a chance to help boost the Mago Point economy.
“I think there's a lot of opportunity in what he's done,” he said. The Daversa Partners move to the neighborhood could inspire other businesses to open there to serve the employees, he said.
The town is overseeing the construction of a fishing pier along the Niantic River and working on parking improvements that could also help bring visitors — and their dollars — to Mago Point. The town hired two consulting firms using a Small Town Economic Assistance Program grant from the state in 2016 to develop new zoning regulations and a design plan that would make Mago Point attractive enough to new businesses that the lure of a vibrant coastal atmosphere would outweigh the cost of building within FEMA regulations.
Meanwhile, Pete Daversa has opened a food stand at Crescent Beach with business partner Pete Farnham, directly across Niantic Bay from Mago Point, where he is serving breakfast, lunch food and barbecue.
He declined to comment on Mago Point Smokehouse Monday, saying that he has signed a non-disclosure agreement with his brother.
Paul Daversa said despite rumors that the restaurant ended because of a brotherly spat, the two are on good terms and talk regularly.
He said while the outcome of the restaurant risk was “a bummer,” he sees it as an opportunity to keep his word to invest in his home state and help Mago Point.
“I already have a national business,” he said. “I can make it anywhere, so why not Waterford?”