Having a restaurant under the same ownership for more than 10 years can be quite a feat, so Stan Velis’ tenure as a Fairhaven restaurateur is pretty unique.
Velis announced last week that he will be retiring and closing Stanello’s Italian Restaurant. June 5 is the last day. He has run the same restaurant for 34 years, although it was originally named Venus Pizza.
Velis, who was busy at the restaurant preparing for Ski to Sea weekend last week, said through a press release that he’s leaving with many good friends and memories.
“I’ve enjoyed watching people who were dating become couples and then parents,” said Velis, 55. “Then I’d be carrying their young children around the restaurant so the parents could have a chance to eat, and now those children are coming back here as adults.”
At 21, Velis started his restaurant business at 1304 12th St. in 1974. By 1988 he had changed the name to Stanello’s, then in 1994 built the Frannick Building — posthumously named after his parents — and moved into that spot, 1514 12th St.
He sold the building in January to Sycamore Corp. for $2.5 million. April McAllister, property manager for Sycamore Corp., said they are already talking to several potential tenants.
“We had thought Stan would be there for a while longer, but we’re working now to find a new tenant,” McAllister said. “I’m sad to see Stan go, because he’s been such a fixture in Fairhaven.”
Stanello’s will open at 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and at noon Saturdays and Sundays. For more information, visit www.stanellos.com or call 676- 1304.
PLANNING FOR PARENTHOOD
Another local business will be closing as the owner goes through her own life-changing event: becoming a mom.
Jody Finnegan will close 12th Street Shoes at Birch Bay Square on Saturday while she prepares for the birth of her daughter, due in a few months. Her other shoe store in Fairhaven will remain open.
“It was a hard decision, but we (she and husband Brian) decided we couldn’t operate two stores with a brand new baby,” Finnegan said.
She said the decision was a tough one because Birch Bay Square is nearing the end of its multimillion-dollar renovation. However, the Fairhaven store is a much shorter commute for the Bellingham resident.
“They’ve been doing an amazing job with the renovation at Birch Bay Square, and customer traffic has started picking up as construction is getting completed,” Finnegan said.
OTHER TIDBITS
Building permits have been approved by the city of Bellingham for a shopping center at 106-122 W. Stuart Road, across from Wal-Mart. The shopping mall is expected to have United Furniture as an anchor tenant. … Key Bank has submitted plans to the Bellingham planning department for its 8,956-square-foot retail bank branch at 1221 N. State St. that will have other offices and a drive-up window. … Lydia Place, a nonprofit organization that provides services for homeless women and their children, has submitted tenant improvement permit applications for a retail clothing store at 1224 N. State St.