A roughly 120-year-old downtown Waterbury building that had previously hosted the iconic Drescher’s Restaurant has recently sold, as has the former Lisboa Restaurant property in the city’s Brooklyn neighborhood.
Both restaurants had long been iconic mainstays before closing amid the pandemic.
Michael Pronovost, who had long run The Turf restaurant and bar in downtown Waterbury, was involved in both sales.
Pronovost sold the four-story, 6,596-square-foot building that hosts The Turf on the first floor for $350,000 last June. He paid $150,000 for the century-old building in 2005 and subsequently performed upgrades.
The buyers are the Mariolis family, a group of Long Island-based entrepreneurs who have bought several buildings in downtown Waterbury over the past couple years.
Kirk Mariolis, on Tuesday, said the family recently began renovating six apartments above The Turf and expect to complete work in about six months.
Pronovost bought the 2,780-square-foot former Lisboa Restaurant property at 19 Lafayette St. for $205,000 in a sale recorded last May. The building has sat vacant until its recent sale to a limited liability company headed by Michael Stallings, who runs IRecycle Inc., a bottle and can recycling operation on Chase River Road.
The LLC headed by Stallings paid $350,000 for the Lafayette Street property in a deed recorded by the city on Jan. 3.
Stallings, on Tuesday, said he plans to renovate the Lisboa space into an American-fare restaurant and events space. He said he intends to host a rotating cast of chefs to keep the food unique and interesting. He also plans to rent out space for weddings, bridal showers and other events.
In a separate sale recorded by Waterbury on Jan. 2, another LLC headed by Pronovost bought the former Drescher’s building at 21 Leavenworth St. for $250,000.
Pronovost, on Monday, said he had planned to launch a restaurant and pub in the iconic restaurant space in the center of downtown Waterbury. Those plans, however, are on hold as “another opportunity” has arisen, Pronovost said.
The 4,258-square-foot Drescher’s building had long been a hub for business meetings and social gatherings in the heart of Waterbury’s downtown office and shopping district, but its fortunes fell as the offices, shops and medical offices drained out of the city core.
It briefly reopened as a restaurant under George Tirado, a popular former city police officer from a prominent local family, before closing again in 2021.
At the time, according to the Republican-American newspaper, Tirado said the family that owned the building had put it up for sale and he could not afford to buy the building. He then opened a pub in a leased space off Watertown Avenue.
David Theroux, of Drubner Commercial, listed the former Drescher’s property.