N-A Minit Intends to Buy and Close Excello, and Then Start Selling Liquor

Mr. and Mrs. Lee, owners of N-A Minit, at 421 13th St. NE, hope to purchase Excello Liquors, at 419 13th St. NE, and its Class A liquor license, Mrs. Lee and her attorney, Paul Pascal, said Monday at a meeting that was called by Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6A05 Michael Musante.

"Mrs. Lee is entering into an agreement to purchase the liquor license of Excello and then close that store," Mr. Pascal said. Instead of having two licenses at that corner, a Class A and a Class B license, there would be just one Class A license.

According to the Web site of the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (http://dcra.dc.gov), a Class A license would allow N-A Minit to sell "alcoholic beverages, spirits, beer, wines and light wines." Currently, N-A Minit holds a Class B license, which allows it to sell "only beer and light wines."

After purchasing Excello's license, Mrs. Lee would file an application to move the license next door, to N-A Minit. Mrs. Lee would be taking Excello's license along with its voluntary agreement, but she would like to modify it in two ways: she would like to be able to sell 24-ounce beer containers as singles, and she would ask to drop the provision in the voluntary agreement requiring that Duncan Place be cleaned on a daily basis.

Mr. Pascal said Mrs. Lee would have control over 419 13th St. NE, and would work with the neighbors to choose a good commercial tenant to replace Excello. Mrs. Lee said she would see to it that the telephone outside Excello is removed. She said that with her video cameras outside the store, she would be better able to monitor activities outside the store than Excello.

Mr. Pascal said that no agreement was expected before May 20, the date by which protests against Excello's liquor license renewal would have to be filed. He said that after any protests are filed, Mrs. Lee would begin negotiating an agreement with protestants. He said her acquisition of Excello would be contingent on being able to come to an agreement and receiving permission from the city to transfer the license to N-A Minit's location.

Many residents at the meeting expressed concern about Mrs. Lee's desire to sell singles. Mr. Pascal said Mrs. Lee felt that selling singles was necessary for her store to be economically viable.

He also said that if more neighbors shopped for groceries at N-A Minit, the store would be in a better position to be serving less alcohol. Some residents said they refused to shop at both N-A Minit and Excello because of the chronic loitering and drug activity outside the stores.

One resident asked if Mrs. Lee would stop selling singles immediately, except for the 24-ounce containers, as a sign of good faith, even prior to the voluntary agreement. Mr. Pascal said he would discuss the issue with Mrs. Lee.

Another resident said the drug activity outside the stores was an issue of police enforcement, and had nothing to do with whether or not singles were being sold. He recalled that neighbors had shut down another liquor store, Trants, on the 1300 block of Constitution Avenue, and suggested that the neighborhood anti-liquor-store sentiment amounted to a racist targeting of Korean Americans.

The meeting was held at 7 p.m. at the Washington Community Fellowship church, at 901 Maryland Ave. NE. There were 23 people present at 7:10 p.m., and 28 at 8 p.m., toward the end of the meeting.§