Board sets revocation hearing for Maverick Square liquor license, but it's six months out, so holder has yet another last chance to re-open his closed restaurant

The Boston Licensing Board voted today to set a revocation hearing in six months for the liquor license John Tyler holds for a space at 154 Maverick St., but said they are more hopeful this time than the last time they threatened him with revocation because he has letters of intent from two possible operators that could, finally, keep the place open longer than a couple months.

Last August, Tyler won another reprieve when he told the board he and a local restaurant operator would soon be re-opening the space in the former city welfare building Tyler and his then wife bought from the city years ago.

The new 154 Station opened in October - and then shut permanently just three months later.

Tyler's LLC, which owns the building, won a restricted "neighborhood" license in 2015, which lets him do everything a regular old liquor license would, except that should he go out of business for good, or the board finally revoke the license, it would have to be returned to the board to grant to somebody in one of the city's Main Street districts or in Roxbury, Mattapan and Dorchester, rather than sold on the open market.

Liquor licenses are in short supply in Boston because the state legislature in recent years has largely refused to grant Boston the right to issue more - to the point where a full-alcohol license now goes for more than $600,000 on the open market.

Tyler and his now ex-wife have been feuding for years, both at the restaurant site itself and in court, over operation of the space, which has led to long stretches in which the restaurant has been shut, the license unused.

At a hearing Tuesday, Tyler's attorney, Andrew Upton, said one of the proposed operators is "a strong and experienced operator" of restaurants in Boston. He declined to discuss specifics of the proposed bids in public, but agreed to give the board copies of the letters of intent for its private perusal.

"He's looking forward to putting this license to use," Updton Said. "He's looking forward to more good years."

He added that Tyler is looking at a re-opening possibly by the end of the summer, "depending on scope of any remodeling for any new operator," which means the space could be operating again before the board's revocation hearing, which based on today's vote would be at the end of September.

"I am really concerned by how little this license has been used," board Chairwoman Kathleen Joyce said Tuesday.

Should Tyler actually re-open the space before then, "great, if not, we will cancel the license," she said today.