SOUTHWICK – A restaurant owner on Congamond Lake is looking to lease his property. Joe Scuderi, the owner of Crabby Joe’s Bar and Grille on 141 Congamond Rd., is planning to retire in the spring of 2019 after being in the restaurant business for more than 36 years and will be closing the restaurant.
Mark O’Neill, a local developer of Hamlet Homes in Suffield, Conn., is working with Scuderi to finalize a lease-purchasing agreement.
Crabby Joe’s owner Joe Scuderi is retiring and will be closing the restaurant. (Photo courtesy of Crabby Joe’s)
O’Neill and Scuderi have hired LDL Design Studios of Providence, R.I., to conduct a study on the renovations that need to be done on the restaurant’s building.
“We are in the process of designing a destination in the making for the (Congamond) lake,” said O’Neill.
Both individuals feel that the property is best suited to be another restaurant with what it already has to offer.
“It’s an absolute beautiful piece of property,” said O’Neill. “The demographics are changing around here rapidly, it’s growing. A casual upscale restaurant on the water we believe would be great for everyone.”
At a Planning Board meeting this week, O’Neill and Scuderi met with the board to go over their site plan. One of the main renovations that needs to be completed is paving the parking lot. With an occupancy of 166 people, guidelines are that 40% of the occupancy is the number of parking spots that need to be available, which is 66 parking spots. The town also requires that there needs to be a parking space per employee. The plan from O’Neill is to pave the parking lot at some point this spring.
Planning Board Chairman Mike Doherty didn’t see many issues with the site plan and changed it to a preliminary plan until O’Neill comes back to the board with the changes that need to be made in the site plan.
