Approvals sought for beer, wine sales at new Arnold convenience store

A business owner who this year received Arnold’s approval for a gas station and convenience store on Freeport Road now is seeking approvals from the city to sell beer and wine there.

The first of a number of public hearings and meetings on the requests by Mike Thakkar, owner of Yashvi Oil, for the property at 1610 Freeport Road is scheduled to be held before city council Oct. 11.

City council in April approved Thakkar’s plans to turn the former auto repair shop between Warren Avenue in Arnold and Woodberry Road in New Kensington into a convenience store. The property previously had been a gas and service station, but most recently no longer sold gasoline and the underground tanks had been removed.

Council approved the project over the objections of nearby residents, who raised concerns including traffic and parking. Concerns focused on how gasoline delivery trucks would maneuver into and out of the lot.

Thakkar now is preparing to transfer a restaurant liquor license into Arnold from Sewickley Township, Westmoreland County, but needs approvals from Arnold first. That’s according to Greg Szallar, senior counsel with the law firm of Flaherty & O’Hara, which is representing Thakkar and specializes in alcohol beverage law.

The needed approvals include for the use of the building as a restaurant.

Thakkar needs variances for the number of parking spaces the city requires and for how close a cooler at the back of the building can be to a property line.

The Oct. 11 hearing before city council will be on the conditional use as a restaurant. The city’s Zoning Hearing Board might take up the other issues Oct. 25, said Rick Rayburg, community development director.

To comply with the state’s code for a restaurant liquor license and sell beer and wine mainly for takeout, Thakkar is required to serve beer, wine and food to eat and drink on the premises and have seating for at least 30 people at one time.

According to an exhibit filed with Arnold, Thakkar would impose a one-drink limit. He does not intend to prepare any beverages onsite.

There would not be a dedicated bar area, and he would not sell liquor.

Szallar said Thakkar owns a gas station and convenience store at 3039 Freeport Road in Harrison. Based on operations there, less than 1% of sales of food, beer and wine are consumed on the premises, the exhibit states.

Further, the exhibit states he has never had a customer buy any beer or wine to drink on the premises in the two years he has operated with a restaurant liquor license there, and he estimates fewer than 10 customers have used the seating area over that time.

Based on the average three to five minutes a customer would spend in the store, the exhibit says Thakkar would not need the full number of parking spaces the city requires.

According to Szallar, the city’s ordinance would require 60 parking spaces. A revised site plan shows 11 spaces, including one handicapped space.

The plan presented in April showed a total of eight spaces.

The cooler would be a reach-in cooler accessed from inside the store, Szallar said.

The revised site plan does not show the single gas pump and canopy on the previous plan. Szallar said the installation of gas pumps would be part of a second phase of the project “down the road.”