Liquor license stalls for Iron Horse Music Hall
NORTHAMPTON — The new owners of the Iron Horse Music Hall, which had been the longtime beating heart of the live-music scene in Western Massachusetts before it closed in 2020, may not have a license to sell alcohol when the venue reopens in May.
Representatives of the Parlor Room, which bought the Iron Horse last fall from previous owner Eric Suher, were dismayed last week to learn that the Iron Horse cannot get a liquor license because Suher doesn’t have a “certificate of good standing” from the state Department of Revenue.
City officials desperate for the storied 250-seat bar to once again attract crowds to downtown Northampton sought instead to grant the venue a “special-act license” — a provisional liquor license not tied to Suher — but the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission rejected that plan, meaning, for now, patrons attending the Iron Horse’s grand reopening May 15 won’t be sipping old-fashioneds or other tasty libations when Rachael Price and Taylor Ashton take the stage.
“I’m hoping this is just a speed bump,” said Natasha Yakovlev, chairperson of the Northampton License Commission. “I’m sure people are working in earnest to get more information and come up with a plan to move forward.”
There was a collective sigh of relief last fall when Suher, a controversial figure who’s been a prominent real estate owner in Northampton for many years, announced plans to unload his collection of downtown venues, including the Iron Horse, the Calvin Theater, Pearl Street, The Basement, and The Green Room. Months before, he’d been ordered by the city to reopen the venues or lose the liquor licenses.
The Parlor Room, a nonprofit performance space located a block from the Iron Horse, has said it paid Suher $50,000 for the liquor license and $100,000 for the Iron Horse name and the club’s contents. It also signed a 15-year lease with Central Chambers Realty Trust, which has owned the Center Street building for more than a century.
But Suher has since failed to produce the certificate of good standing, which the state Department of Revenue issues to property owners when all tax liabilities are met. At the License Commission’s January meeting, Suher finally acknowledged he didn’t have the certificate, at which point the commission canceled the Iron Horse liquor license and attempted to issue the special-act license.
The decision by the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission to oppose the specialact license surprised and upset city officials and the Parlor Room.
“This is head-scratching,” said Nick Grimaldi, the attorney representing the Parlor Room. “This isn’t [Suher’s] license. If he didn’t pay taxes, well, go after him, but this isn’t a lien against the license, because this license didn’t come from him.”
Suher, a Holyoke resident who made his money as a screenprinter and once managed the Pioneer Valley-based band NRBQ, did not return two phone calls this week.
It’s not clear what effect, if any, the certificate issue will have on a previously announced proposal by the concert-promotion company Bowery Presents to take over the lease of the 1,400-seat Calvin Theater. Bowery Presents, which operates more than two dozen stages on the East Coast (including Roadrunner, Royale, The Sinclair, and The Stage at Suffolk Downs), did not respond to requests for comment this week.
Yakovlev, the chair of the License Commission, said she and many others in Northampton were excited when Suher decided to relinquish his venues. They believe he’s been an obstacle to the economic development of downtown.
“The vast majority of our empty storefronts are in buildings that belong to him,” Yakovlev said. “Seeing the Parlor Room reopen the Iron Horse and knowing Bowery Presents wants to come to the Calvin, that was really exciting and people could start to envision [Suher] no longer being the narrative of downtown Northampton.”