Borough sets stage for liquor license swaps

PALMER — With a set of local rules in place, the Mat-Su Borough is ready start transferring liquor licenses under a change in state rules.

Borough Planner Emerson Krueger said the change allows three beverage dispensary licenses in the next three years to move into cities from unincorporated areas of the Borough. After those three years, three more licenses can transfer in over the following decade. The change was passed in the state Legislature last June.

There are 175 dispensary licenses in the Borough, Krueger said. Houston has one establishment with a dispensary license and Wasilla and Palmer have four each within city limits. Although there are other types of liquor licenses, the new license transfer regulations apply to the dispensary type that allows restaurants or places that generate a certain percentage of profit from food sales to dispense hard liquor.

Those figures don’t include other types of licenses such as seasonal licenses or tourism licenses, of which there are quite a few in the Borough and are governed under a different set of rules, Krueger said.

The state’s rule change requires that both the Borough and municipality into which the license will be transferred sign off on the change. Thus, the Borough had to come up with its own process and regulations for transferring licenses.

The decision will allow one of the three licenses to be transferred into each of the cities of Houston, Palmer and Wasilla.

At Evangelo’s Restaurant in Wasilla, owner Evangelo Lambernakis said he has a beer and wine license, but has been trying for years to get a beverage dispensary license, the kind that would allow him to serve liquor. Lambernakis said he’s already found a license to transfer and is waiting to see what the Borough and city do with his application. But waiting isn’t cheap.

“Sitting here six months, it costs me almost $1,500 a month in interest,” he said. “I’m ready to go. Anything they ask me to do I’m jumping.”

Krueger said he’s talked to Lambernakis and is looking forward to working with him. But the application he submitted in November jumped the gun, since at that time the Borough didn’t have a process in place for transferring licenses. Even now that rules are in place, Lambernakis could be looking at six months before his application could be approved.

Krueger said the Borough wanted to craft a meaningful set of standards for the transfers that will create a worthwhile review process and give the Borough the ability to decline a transfer application that doesn’t measure up.

Still, he said, “I imagine that a lot of applications to transfer licenses into a city will be a no-brainer.”

The Borough’s planning director has 30 days from an application’s submission to have a resolution and a finding of best interest before the Mat-Su Borough Assembly. After that, Krueger said it would take a month for the application to wind its way through the assembly. Add to that any city processes, and a business wanting to transfer a license could be looking at as much as six months for an application to be approved.

The application fee is $500.

Krueger said since the Legislature changed its rules he’s heard a lot of testimony from a lot of Valley business owners about transferring liquor licenses. Krueger said the value of licenses in local cities has diminished while the value of those in unincorporated areas has increased.

“It’s still cheaper to try to find a license outside a city,” Krueger said.

There, he hears that purchasing a license from another holder can cost something in the ballpark of $400,000.

“It’s money that I can’t imagine,” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.-wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.