The College Park City Council may recommend that the county liquor board renew the shuttered College Perk coffeehouse’s liquor license after its owner paid a long-owed fee to the city this week, council members said.
Perk operator Chris Gordon paid $263.50 for a city liquor license Tuesday, city public services director Bob Ryan said.
“I don’t know if it’ll make it 100 percent certain,” District 2 Councilman Bob Catlin said. But “I think [paying the fee] will make it likely instead of unlikely” that the council will voice no objection when it votes on the issue later this month, he added.
This reversal from Catlin and other council members is a rare glimmer of hope for the troubled Perk following a lengthy public hearing at City Hall last week in which Gordon drew the ire of city officials for his comparison of municipal fees to apartheid.
However, a renewed liquor license may not cure all that ails the once-popular establishment.
College Perk has been closed since a summer fire, and it was sold in foreclosure more than a year ago. Gordon has stalled numerous eviction attempts from the new official owner by tying up the issue in five separate court cases.
Moreover, even if the city council does vote to recommend that the county renew College Perk’s license, their voice is only a recommendation.
The county liquor board has the final word and will find itself sifting through conflicting claims of ownership of the property – Daria Land Group LLC has paid the mortgage and property taxes for College Perk since January 2008; Gordon claims his foreclosure was fraudulent – as well as city and county code violations stemming from unrepaired fire damage.
“[Gordon’s] got issues with other things than College Park,” Catlin said. “He’s juggling a lot of balls that are in danger of dropping and breaking.”
District 4 Councilwoman Mary Cook said she was underwhelmed by Gordon’s action to pay his city fee.
“Oh, yippee, how late was that?” she said. “I think it would be great to keep one of these locally owned businesses that’s popular with students and residents, but at the same time, I don’t think we want to let people continue getting away with violating the law.”
But while she would not say how she planned to vote on College Perk, Cook agreed the paid fee would likely make a positive impact on the outcome of the council’s decision.
Gordon initially said he didn’t want to pay the liquor license fee – which he considered unfair – before he had a chance to publicly air his concerns.
“Ask yourselves that, if it’s a fair fee,” Gordon told the city council at last week’s hearing, adding he would pay it if the city maintained he needed to.
However, Gordon did not pay his city occupancy permit fees and related fines, which are still tied up in court. He did not return phone calls seeking comment earlier this week, and his cell phone’s voicemail box was full yesterday evening.
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