The owners of an upscale package store in West Hartford Center recently paid $1.1 million for the 70-year-old retail building in which the business is located.
Maulik Vyas, of South Kingstown, Rhode Island, bought Tilted Bottles – a wine-focused package store located at 10 Raymond Road – two years ago. His childhood friend, Dharmendrasinh Chauhan, and sister-in-law, Kinjalki Desai, joined as minority-share investors in the business.
Vyas said his lease with Raymond Road LLC – whose principal is Steven Montano, of East Greenbush, New York – included a right of first refusal if the 5,384-square-foot building were to go up for sale. And so, when Montano recently decided to sell, Vyas exercised that clause.
The $1.1 million sale was recorded Nov. 8.
Vyas has already invested in the building, paying 70% of costs for a recent renovation of his space and the building façade.
The package store shares the building with the Nail Gallery, which Vyas hopes to keep on as a tenant.
Vyas said his first year in business was a struggle, coming at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many faithful customers were also a bit wary of new ownership. But Vyas expanded his selection of hard-to-find wines and worked to provide superior customer service, he said.
Vyas said 2021 improved and 2022 was a very good year.
“It is kind of a small mom and pop store,” Vyas said. “All employees who work there are my family members. We don’t do fluorescent signs. We work with small vineyards, small distributors and get exclusive wines from all over the world. We want to make sure we give a different experience to the customer than the rest of the package stores.”
Vyas said he has no big plans for the single-story building on a third of an acre, at least in the immediate future. He said he might contemplate building upward, perhaps adding office space, depending on the economic climate in two or three years.
