Natick Business Buzz: Boxing gym rumbling into Natick Mall; Liquor license fees revert to 2020 levels

The latest Natick, Mass., business news:

Boxing gym rumbling into Natick Mall

The roughly 2,800 sq. ft. space was once occupied by Paul Bakery.

Rumble has a handful of gyms in New Jersey and New York, and more planned in New England, including in Somerville and Watertown.

The Natick Planning Board took up the pitch from owner Chandra Mohan Manish, including signage, at its Oct. 12 meeting, about 2 hours, 13 minutes into the meeting. The Board approved of the use at the mall and temporary signage, with final signage up for approval later in the month.

 

Liquor license fees revert to 2020 levels

The Natick Select Board voted last week to return liquor license fees for on-premises consumption at restaurants, etc. in 2023, to their pre-pandemic levels, having given businesses a break the past couple of years in light of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact (see discussion on Natick Pegasus recording, about 14 minutes in). Fees had been cut by half.

The town had actually conducted a comprehensive review of license fees shortly before the pandemic, and the 2020 fees reflected that. That’s the set of fees the town voted to return to for 2023.

The Board decided not to go all the way back to the previous fees for hotels/inns, which are still recovering from the pandemic. Down the road, the town could reexamine fees for sellers of liquor for off-premises consumption, with an eye toward possibly making the fee difference between small package stories and larger retailers such as Total Wine and Wegmans more pronounced.

There was also talk of incremental fee increases in the future, say every couple of years, rather than more drastic increases that would happen every so often.

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