Phillips Hardware, an iconic store on Circuit Avenue, and one of the longest-running businesses on Martha’s Vineyard, will go before the Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) next week to seek permission to demolish the existing 8,500-square-foot building and replace it with a three-story, 18,000-square-foot mixed-use building, with three “top-of-the-shop” apartments.
The project will undergo review by the MVC as a development of regional impact (DRI) for three reasons — it’s a commercial mixed-use building over 3,000 square feet, it requires demolition in a commercial district, and the building is over 100 years old.
Part of the store was originally built as the Oakwood Hotel in 1880.
In 1928, Phillips Hardware store began operations on the first floor, with the family living above. The neighboring Metropolitan Hotel burned down in the 1940s, and Phillip’s eventually expanded the footprint of the first floor to encompass most of the lot.
The upper stories have been used for storage for the hardware store for several decades.
Owners Donna Leon and Susan Phillips are proposing to build a three-story building, incorporating the original style of the Oakwood Hotel, on a slightly smaller footprint, to accommodate accessibility. The existing 289-square-foot dugout basement will be replaced with a full 4,923-square-foot basement.
The three rental apartments, one of which will be reserved for staff housing, will be accessible by a small lobby, off the existing alley, which will be widened.
The proposed construction schedule is to complete the first floor this winter so the hardware store can open for business by next summer. The three apartments are to be completed in the subsequent off-season.
The DRI public hearing will be at the MVC on Thursday, Sept. 22, at 7 pm.
