The town is moving to demolish the abandoned waterfront property that was once Bert’s restaurant, 12 years after its last tenant closed the doors.
Town Manager Derek Brindisi told the Select Board Tuesday that an order would immediately be sent to the decaying property’s owners to secure the building, followed by another order directing them to tear down the building within 60 days.
The orders are based on state building code regulating unsafe structures, Brindisi said.
Jason Silva, the town’s director of inspectional services, said in an email that his department, along with the Fire Department, “recently inspected the property at 140 Warren Ave., AKA Bert’s, and will be producing the results shortly.”
The site is owned by the heirs of George Demeter, a Boston real estate developer and banker who bought it in 1994 from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. That company took it over after Plymouth Five Cents Savings Bank, which had foreclosed on the property, went belly up in 1992.
After Bert’s closed, a series of short-lived restaurants operated at the address. Over time, storms, neglect, and vandalism turned the site into an eyesore.
The property is assessed by the town at $1,448,700, with real estate taxes pegged at more than $18,000 annually.
In 2024, as public complaints about the site mounted,
the owners floated a plan to redevelop it, but talks with officials over use of an adjacent town-owned parking lot stalled and nothing happened.
Last week, Select Board Chair Kevin Canty urged Brindisi to confer with town counsel and inspectional services to determine what course of action the town should take. Brindisi has said that it’s the property he “gets the most calls about.”
Canty’s proposal came after yet another appearance from Town Meeting member Richard Serkey in his long campaign to get officials to do something about the blighted property at the entrance to Long Beach on Warren Avenue.
Serkey had recommended a procedure that would have required a hearing of the Select Board. After conferring with staff and town counsel, Brindisi decided that the town could instead move ahead under the state’s building code. It is not clear if a hearing will be required.
“There will be many more updates to come,” he told the Select Board.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org