Portage’s booze biz set to boom thanks to Bass Pro Shops

PORTAGE — It’s classic supply and demand.

And if the barstool banter in Portage is right, demand for liquor licenses is about to go way up.

“If you already own one, look out,” said John Gibson, director of the School of Business and Economics at Indiana University Northwest.

City leaders are predicting that national retailers and restaurateurs will follow developments Bass Pro Shops and Northwest Indiana’s first Imax theater into Portage.

Some, like LongHorn Steakhouse, are already committed. LongHorn has the liquor license to prove it.

If more really are to follow, it could mean a big windfall for license owners.

“Those things turn into gold in this area,” said Dean Efantis, manager of Gelsosomo’s Pizzeria in Portage.

Tom Gelsosomo, the owner of the pizzeria, said he sold a beer, wine and liquor license 15 years ago for $10,000.

As he explored the possibility of a new restaurant after Bass Pro and Imax were announced, he said he heard they were going for as much as $250,000.

“I’m on the wrong side of the fence,” Gelsosomo said.

That’s business, though.

“If there’s speculation that a stock is going to increase in value,” Gibson said, “investors are going to bid it up.”

Phil Reiner, owner of Portage bars including Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant, Sportys Pub & Grub and The Drink, is on the right side of the fence.

Reiner said he owns six beer, wine and liquor licenses in the Portage area and is ready to sell or buy more when the market’s right.

“I’m watching,” Reiner said. “I’m watching everything. I’d probably let one go.”

Reiner doubts that the licenses in Portage have reached the value Gelsosomo had heard of, though.

“In my opinion,” Reiner said, “a license is worth $50,000 or as high as $75,000.”

Making money off a liquor license isn’t as simple as buying stock, though.

U-Jung Choe, executive secretary of the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, said it is illegal to simply buy a license and sit on it, a practice she calls “speculation.”

However, if the license is being used to run a business, even if that owner hopes to sell the license for a profit, there’s no issue.

“That person has a legitimate business,” Choe said.

There’s an added liability with the licenses, too, according to Dale Crandall, owner of Monterey Jack’s Restaurant & Lounge on U.S. 20.

“I wouldn’t want to take a chance on getting too many of them,” Crandall said.

Although the liquor licenses are regulated by the state, the sales are dealt with privately, said Margaret Fawl, a clerk with the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission.

“It’s just like you’re going to sell a house,” Fawl said.

The new owners, however, have to qualify with the state, Fawl said.

“There’s an application,” Fawl said.

Liquor licenses are allocated to cities in Indiana according to population.

Fawl said there is one beer license, one wine license, one beer and wine license, and one license for beer, wine and liquor for every 1,500 people.

At Census time, the number of licenses in each city is re-evaluated, and new licenses are sold at auction if the city earns more.

There also are exceptions for riverfront, economic and historical developments, Fawl said.

A bill introduced in the General Assembly this year would create three more licenses at $6,000 each in Portage’s downtown redevelopment district. The bill never passed, but language endorsing it could resurface in another piece of legislation.

The bill upset many bar owners in Portage, though, because it could diminish the value of the licenses they already hold.

Mark Oprisko, a Portage City Council member and owner of MarkO’s Bar, said Portage has enough licenses already. He said people who want a license can find them for as little as $70,000.

“There’s people willing to sell,” Oprisko said.