This article appeared in the Derry News December 18, 2007

  

DERRY | An auction sale of the Firehall Pub and Grille was stalled last week because a local real estate agent says he has a purchase and sale agreement from 2006 on the West Broadway restaurant.

Steve Trefethen filed an injunction in Rockingham Superior Court to prevent the sale of the restaurant two days before it was scheduled to go up for auction. Trefethen owns commercial and residential space at 44 West Broadway, close to the Firehall.

The restaurant, located at 32 West Broadway, was operated by Robert and Bonnie Hall of Bedford, but is now owned by Wells Fargo Bank, which foreclosed on the property. The restaurant closed its doors in September after being in business for two years.

According to court documents, the Halls entered into a purchase and sale agreement with B & B Firehall 1, LLC | a company owned by Trefethen. He says the purchase price was $1.1 million with $450,000 being paid for the business, $150,000 for the equipment and $500,000 being paid for the land and building.

On August 17, 2006, the Halls told Trefethen, who owns Summerview Real Estate at 44 West Broadway, they would not be honoring the purchase and sale agreement, according to the documents.

Thomas Grodt, Trefethen's attorney, said Monday that since the summer of 2006, he and Trefethen have been working with the Halls to negotiate privacy, parking and snow removal for the neighbors who live in the adjacent buildings. These issues have yet to be resolved.

Grodt would not comment on whether Trefethen would like to own the restaurant, stating that depends on how negotiations are handled. In the court documents, however, Trefethen says he would like to reopen the restaurant.

"This all started as a means to protect tenants (of 44 West Broadway) and the neighborhood against the operation of the Firehall," Grodt said. After signing the agreement with the Halls, Trefethen says he spent about 180 hours developing plans to expand the building to provide more space for dining and functions, according to court documents.

Because of his involvement in the renovation plans, Trefethen says his real estate business has suffered.

Over the past two years, the restaurant was the subject of litigation filed by neighbors from a different building owned by Property Portfolio Group. The neighbors claimed that the process to approve the site as a place of business wasn't legal, and that the restaurant had driven tenants from the apartments.

Attempts to reach the Halls at their Bedford home were unsuccessful.

For more than a century, the restaurant was a fire station but was made into a restaurant after the town no longer needed the building. It was purchased by the Halls for $375,000 and was remodeled to be a restaurant on the lower floor, and a piano bar upstairs, keeping a firefighting theme throughout the building.

A hearing for the injunction is scheduled for Jan. 18 and the auction has been rescheduled for Feb. 1.

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