The Bar Close to Completion at Ten Exchange Street , a/k/a Vegas, This Afternoon.  A Stage is Also Permitted at Vegas.

PJ, Manager of Soley’s Properties and Joe Soley, Earlier This Month,  at His Office at One Exchange Street, Old Port.

Attorneys for Ocean State Job Lot, a large store in the Route 1 Falmouth Shopping Center, and attorneys for Joe Soley/Jonathan Cohen were supposed to have appeared in court this morning to square off on an eviction notice the Portland developers issued against the Ocean State Job Lot earlier this month.   According to someone familiar with the situation, the case was postponed and moved to a different court.  No more details are available at this time.

The controversial landlord Joe Soley and Jonathan Cohen, developer of the new WEX headquarters on the Munjoy Hill waterfront, issued an eviction notice to the store headquarters citing a technical issue in the exchange of lease documents between the two parties.  A Rhode Island based company, Ocean State Job Lot, has 131 stores in the northeast and is forty years old.

Meanwhile, this blogger took the above left photo of a bar approved by the Portland City Council last fall in a controversial meeting at city hall.  The photograph, taken this afternoon is of the bar Vegas, located on the first floor of The Residence, a new condominium located at Ten Exchange Street in the Old Port.   The bar business is to be owned and managed by Mark Dean, owner of Mark’s Place and other establishments in the Old Port.  Jonathan Cohen and Joe Soley own different parts of the Ten Exchange Street building.

Business owners in the Ten Exchange area had reported that hammering and other construction noises had been heard at Vegas for months,  despite the fact that Dean did not have a permit allowing him to begin construction on the premises.  Shortly thereafter a “stop work” sign appeared on the door of Vegas.  Late last week, the sign was removed and replaced with a permit giving Dean Et Al permission to proceed with construction.

This afternoon a workman on the premises told this blogger that he had been working on the bar during the time in which it was illegal to do so.  Allegedly, the owner just wanted to get a jump on the build out of the bar because he believed no one knew he was there or would report  him to the authorities.  Jonathan Cohen, an owner of the Falmouth Shopping Center, is a backer of Mark Dean.

What penalty was imposed on this group do you suppose?  Dunno.  Perhaps the first $100, 000. in revenue should be donated to the Animal Rescue League.

Please visit post herein dated May 18,2018 for more background on this subject.