Worcester grants Hart Center Liquor License

Worcester OKs liquor license for Holy Cross' Hart Center pending state approval

Kim Ring

Telegram & Gazette


WORCESTER - After testing the waters with several one-day liquor licenses, the College of the Holy Cross will now have an all-alcohol license for the Hart Center at the Luth Athletic Complex.
City License Commissioners awarded the license, which must also receive state approval, during their meeting on Thursday. Commissioners toured the facility earlier in the day.
Mark Borenstein, a lawyer from Bowditch & Dewey LLC and who represents the college's trustees, said alcohol will be available on the ground floor and second level, which are viewing areas for hockey and basketball that total about 85,000 of the complex's 248,000 square feet.

Commissioners had been granting one-day liquor licenses for events at the complex, and after the new amenity was well received, the Trustees of the College of the Holy Cross decided to make the request permanent.
"It's been very successful so they're seeking to make that a permanent license," Borenstein said.

The manager of record for the venture is Nicholas Smith, senior associate director of athletics. Dogfather Vending, LLC, operated by Mark Gallant, who has been running the alcohol service for several months, will serve as manager, Borenstein said.
A church within 500 feet of the facility was notified of the proposed alcohol sales and did not contest the license, Borenstein told commissioners.


Security for events, which are almost exclusively sporting events, is provided by campus police, and patrons will be "carded" in accordance with state laws, Borenstein said.
He said in the past nine months, there have been no issues when alcohol was offered at sporting events.

Commissioners approved the license and set no extra conditions or restrictions. Commission chairman Walter Shea said after seeing the facility that the layout was "very impressive."

Here is a partial list of actions Boston can’t take without permission from the Massachusetts Legislature:

Levy a new tax. Add liquor licenses. Tweak local election schedules.

Thanks to a striking concentration of power in the seat of Massachusetts government on Beacon Hill, the capital city and other Massachusetts municipalities must seek state sign-off for both substantive policy changes, such as restricting how much rents may increase each year, and more routine proposals, such as changing speed limits on some roads.

It’s a legal structure that hamstrings Boston, leaving it with far less control over its own fate than other major cities across the country. Without the ability to independently raise new revenue streams to pay for the ongoing and ever-increasing expenses of pensions, schools, and public safety, the city has limited financial flexibility for addressing its residents’ most urgent concerns, such as the skyrocketing cost of housing.