City of Centerville approves proposal for entertainment district uptown

CENTERVILLE — The City of Centerville has approved a proposal to create an uptown entertainment district that will allow for the expansion of liquor permits for its businesses and those looking to move to the city.

The entertainment district would span a few blocks down Franklin Street and also a few blocks down Main Street.

The designation will allow for 15 additional liquor permits, with the cost per permit typically being around $2500 dollars.

The City of Centerville’s development director, Mike Norton-Smith, says there is currently a shortage of liquor permits available for new businesses.

The shortage is keeping the city from attracting new businesses Uptown, a goal of the 11.4 million dollar redevelopment project.

“As we look at the vision for Uptown, we see it as an upscale and unique location with restaurants that are of the caliber of Salar,” Norton-Smith said.

The owner of Salar announced in June plans to open another restaurant in Uptown Centerville.

>> Salar owner plans to open sister restaurant in Uptown Centerville

There was some concern from one resident, who attended Monday’s public hearing on the matter. The concern was that the adding of 15 permits would create a bar crawl scene on the district.

“It’s not necessarily the pub crawl type environment. So the concern, while we are open to hearing from our citizens, we don’t necessarily think that will become a reality,” Norton-Smith said.

The liquor permits are available right away for current businesses in the area interested. They could receive the permits as soon as August or September.

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