Developer with a background in bartending gets OK to buy $600,000 liquor license for $3-million restaurant in his $600-million Seaport project

As Boston officials await word on whether the legislature will give last-second approval to more than 250 liquor licenses for the city, the Boston Licensing Board today approved plans by developer John Hynes IV to pay $600,000 for the liquor license of a defunct downtown bar to use it as an enticement to bring in somebody to run the restaurant he wants to have in his 18-story, $600-million Seaport office and life-sciences building.

With liquor licenses in short supply - and expensive - in Boston, it's become increasingly common for developers to purchase licenses on the open market, which they then use to lure in world-class chefs who might not have six figures worth of cash lying around just for a liquor license.

Earlier this year, the board approved a similar license purchase by the developers of the two-building complex along and atop the turnpike on Massachusetts Ave. between Boylston and Newbury Streets. Today, the board approved a deal between them and Nikolaos Tsoulos, a New York chef, to open what his lawyer called "a classic Greek concept" of a restaurant there, to be called AVRA.

Licensing board rules require liquor licenses to have a formal manager listed on them, so Hynes's deal to buy the liquor license of the former Silvertone on Bromfield Street included having him designated the official manager.

Hynes's attorney, Stephen Miller emphasized at a hearing yesterday that Hynes will not actually work as a restaurant manager, although he said he does have the required background and knowledge of local and state liquor laws, in part from a stint working as a bartender and waiter before he got into the family real-estate business full time. He also meets the other requirements of being a US citizen and a resident of the Commonwealth.

Miller said Hynes will eventually return to the licensing board with a management agreement with a local restaurant concern to actually run the restaurant - into which he said Hynes is pouring $3 million to build out a space suitable for some fine dining.

He said his client has already "talked to some of the premier companies in and around Boston" about the space at the 10 World Trade project at 401 Congress St..

At the hearing, nobody spoke against the proposed license sale, which will also need sign off from the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.