It ain't over 'til it's over
Digital Federal Credit Union may have the TiNovo restaurant building in Worcester scheduled for auction tomorrow, Feb. 6, but owner and longtime restaurateur Mitchell Terricciano isn’t giving up on trying to pull the eatery out of the foreclosure fire.
At press time, Terricciano was still working to put together investors to allow him to reopen the 55 Pearl St. restaurant. And he said he was still hoping that progress on the deal would prompt the DCU to cancel the auction.
Terricciano told WBJ last week that lining up backers to reopen the year-old restaurant is a complicated process, but it was still moving forward. "As far as I’m concerned, it’s not over." He said he was assured by the DCU that they would cancel the auction "if the deal is solid and [looks] like it’s going forward."
TiNovo, located in the renovated GAR Hall, closed its doors in early January after only one year of operation. Terricciano blamed the restaurant’s tough times partly on delays in the $2.4-million renovation due to two lenders backing out of commitments to finance the project. DCU financed the project in 2005 after city officials intervened. Several councilors and Mayor Timothy Murray warned banks at the time that they needed to step up to the plate to fund downtown development like the TiNovo project.
Terricciano says, however, after a year and a half delay in opening the restaurant, costs had escalated and his personal finances had suffered. He lacked funds to properly promote TiNovo, he says.
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