Deal To Sell Faregrounds Restaurant Falls Through
Jason Graziadei •
Faregrounds Restaurant will be open this summer after all.
Bill and Kim Puder's deal to sell their restaurant and bar to an island summer resident who planned to convert the property into an eight-lot residential housing development has fallen through.
Despite the subdivision plan recently being approved by the Planning Board, Kim Puder confirmed on Friday that the deal was off.
"Yes, the deal fell through," Puder said. "We will be open for the summer, again."
She declined to provide further details on how the sale fell apart.
The man on the other side of the deal was Brad Cartwright, of The Granite Street Realty Corp., who owns and operates several funeral homes in Braintree, Mass., and also owns a home on the island on Upper Tawpawshaw Road. Cartwright did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Earlier this year, Cartwright's Fairgrounds LLC had struck a deal to purchase both the Faregrounds Restaurant property at 27 Fairgrounds Road, along with an undeveloped lot at 25 Fairgrounds Road owned by Suzanne Davis. Under the plan approved by the Planning Board last month, the properties would have been combined to create "Pudley's Court," a cul-de-sac development with eight residential housing lots. The restaurant and bar that has been a local favorite for decades and the site of countless community events would have been demolished.
What happens now? Kim Puder wasn't letting on, other than to say that the restaurant would remain open for the summer.
The pending sale of Faregrounds had brought a mix of emotions among many in the community - happiness for the Puders, who had poured their hearts and souls into the restaurant for decades, but also sadness over the loss of yet another reasonably priced, local gathering place.
As the news of the deal falling through spread on Friday, the emotions expressed by many online were also bittersweet: sadness for the Puders that their plan to sell and retire had fallen through, but also happiness to enjoy Faregrounds for at least one more summer.