Restaurant Franchise Set For Former Bookstore?

Is the former bookstore in Belmont Center ready to replace shelves of bestsellers for tables of diners? 

Two independent real estate sources told Belmont Patch the store front at 43 Leonard St. is "off the market" as an area-based restaurant franchise – as yet, unnamed – is seriously eyeing the onetime Charlesbank Bookshops for its new location.

So far everyone who has a hand in the deal or in approving it are keeping mum. Belmont resident and 43 Leonard landlord, Joseph Tellier, and his sales agent, Roy Papalia, have not yet returned phone calls on the matter.

And town officials indicate that no official requests for a business license, renderings to begin renovations or a possible hearing before the town's Planning Board have been made by a potential leaseholder. 

And while there is interest in a site, there is not indication that a deal has been struck by the parties.

Yet Papalia commented in Belmont Patch in April that Tellier's preference was to place a eatery in the former home of the Barnes & Nobel-owned store.

"We prefer a high-end restaurant or boutique to take up the space," said Papalia of the somewhat smallish – about 2,700 square feet – restaurant that would straddle Starbucks and Bruegger's Bagels on either of it's sides and facing il Casale, Belmont's best known destination eatery.

"If we got a smaller shop we'd have to divide up the spot and we'd prefer not to do that. This is a pretty ideal location," he said on April 23.

So far, one Boston chain has taken its menu out of the running.

"We are not looking in Belmont," said Nina Endrst, media spokeswoman for Upper Crust Pizza.

Ever since the closing of the Charlesbank Bookstore back in December, Belmont Center has been looking for a suitable replacement.

Slowly, life has been returning to the business heart of town: Rancatore's, the ice cream store, moved from Belmont Street to 36 Leonard St. to wild support.

And this coming Monday, Aug. 16, two residents – Suzanne Schalow and Kate Baker – will be before the Board of Selectmen to request a liquor license for their new store, Craft Beer Cellar, at 51 Leonard St. 

At 43 Leonard, the abandoned store is being advertised as a single unit. And even though it was large enough to split into two stores,  Tellier was reluctant to divide the area.

"We're being very particular in what type of store we want in there. We don't want a low-end sales shop. We want to find the right fit," Papalia said.

Because of its relative small size, any restaurant would not need Zoning Board of Appeal approval, falling below the minimum square footage, and would only come before the Planning Board on parking concerns.