FITCHBURG — The lights are off and the beer has stopped flowing at Beemers Pub & Grill, which officially closed its doors on Dec. 31, 2019.
The downtown bar and restaurant opened at its current location on 310 Main St. nearly four years ago, after its prior River Street location was destroyed in a March 2015 fire.
Owner Peter Cote purchased the building on July 20, 2015, for $150,000, records from the Fitchburg Registry of Deeds indicate.
The business at one point employed 20 people, but cutbacks dropped that number down to three, Cote said on Thursday.
Cote said there were a number of factors that contributed to the bar shutting down, including skyrocketing utility rates.
“Unitil crushed us every month,” he said, in reference to the interstate electricity and natural gas utility company.
According to Cote, the rates were overwhelmingly high and eventually became too burdensome to deal with.
“When your electric bill is higher than your taxes, your mortgage, and insurance payments combined, there’s a problem,” he said.
Cote said he also was forced to close the bar because of several rulings from the city’s License Commission, including a Sept. 19 decision to revoke his late closing permit for more than two months.
In the past year or so, the License Commission reviewed nearly 20 incident reports stemming from issues at Beemers Pub, including several serious altercations that occurred on the property.
After finding Cote at fault for fights earlier in the year, the commission handed down a one-day suspension of his liquor license on Sept. 4 and a three-day suspension of his license on Sept. 16.
Cote said both suspensions and the revocation of his late-night license had a serious impact on the bar.
“The city put me out of business,” said Cote. “When the License Commission took my late night closing permit away and I was losing about $60,000 a month… I couldn’t stay open anymore.”
License Commission Chair Dan Sarefield said the board did everything in its power to work with Cote and to help him get back on track following the September rulings.
“The job of the License Commission is to help our licensees achieve and maintain compliance with regulations and the law,” said Sarefield. “We did our best to work with Mr. Cote and were willing to continue to work with him.”
Cote also said that Mayor Stephen DiNatale had a hand in the bar’s closing, and accused him of intentionally shutting it down.
“The Police Department was ordered to close me down,” he said. “Things just snowballed, and I couldn’t stop it between the mayor and the License Commission.”
DiNatale said the city has been nothing but welcoming to Cote and Beemers Pub.
“We welcomed him with open arms downtown,” said DiNatale. “We provided him with every tool in our economic development toolbox.”
In 2017, DiNatale said, the city used a $250,000 state grant to install high speed internet access for businesses in the downtown area, including Beemers.
DiNatale said Cote also received aid from NewVue Communities through its Small Business Technical Assistance program, and other assistance from local organizations.
“I think that (Cote) is misguided in thinking that I made an effort to scuttle his opportunity as a business,” he said. “It’s a tough business and I feel badly about (the closing), and I only hope that another business will come in.”
DiNatale added that he wishes Cote luck in whatever he does next.
According to Cote, stress triggered a “massive heart attack” and essentially forced him to make the difficult decision to close.
“I’m dying. The stress is killing me,” said Cote. “My physician told me to get rid of the stress or I’ll be dead in a year.”
Now that Beemers has closed, he said, it feels like 1,000 pounds have lifted from his shoulders.
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