Change is in the "Aire"

Category: Eat in Diners

Published Date

Written by Randy Garbin

This tip comes to us thank to David Manning and the Boston Globe. The long-shuttered and rotting Bel Aire Diner closed in 2003, and since then we've heard of various plans to either sell and/or move the diner to another location. The Kallas family, in our opinion, let a true roadside gem and golden business opportunity slip away thanks to years of deferred mainenance and sub-par fare. Perhaps this news points to a new direction.

Hoping for a revival

Vacant Route 1 business sites trouble municipal officials

By Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff | December 6, 2009

PEABODY - Closed for three years, Bel-Aire Diner could become the star of a $2 million project to make an old truck stop once again a must-stop on Route 1.

The vintage diner, built in 1952, would be refurbished and moved on the 3.6-acre site, where a new building will house a gas station and a 24-hour convenience store. The project is the first proposed since industrial zoning was changed to allow for retail stores and restaurants to open on the two-lane roadway.

“A truck stop needs to be able to take advantage of a highway,’’ said John Kallas, 51, a second-generation owner who runs a Best gas station on the site. “The diner will be our centerpiece.’’

The new Bel-Aire would be a welcome change for the northern corridor of Route 1 in Peabody and Danvers. With a few exceptions, such as the new Sonic burger joint and Latitude sports club in Peabody, and DiLuigi’s Sausage Co. in Danvers, most major developments have stalled in the stubborn economy. “Very few people out there now are taking risks,’’ noted David Ankeles, a Peabody lawyer whose clients include the Kallas family.

A lack of financing scuttled plans for an 80,000-square-foot family entertainment center proposed for the closed Country Side Motel site in Peabody. Farther south, a Starbucks and a small retail strip was never built at a former Burger King site. Foreclosure claimed a 36,000-square-foot office building that once housed East West Mortgage, which moved to Worcester. The property, including old cubicles, desks, and chairs, is for sale for $3.5 million by Wainwright Bank of Boston.

Highway 99 - (A Window to the West's Recent History)

Written by Al Sollinger

Highway 99, was the main north–south highway of "The West" until 1964. Beginning in Calexico, California at the Baja California, Mexico at the U.S. ...

Written on 03 February 2012
0 comment(s) · Read More
This Old Building

Written by Teri Dunn Chace

Here in Upstate New York, there are a lot of (potentially) beautiful old Main Streets, lined mostly or completely with handsome old brick buildings fr...

Written on 02 February 2012
4 comment(s) · Read More
Draper Mountain Wayside, US 11 S of Pulaski VA

Written by Tom Hoffman

Here are two views of another of Virginia's "Waysides," which once served motorists the way "rest areas" do now on the interstates. Ho...

Written on 28 January 2012
0 comment(s) · Read More
"The Artist" and "The Theatre"

Written by Sue Clarendon

“The Artist” is a charming movie, deserving of all the Golden Globes awards it received, and then some. (Watching that otherwise uninspired awar...

Written on 23 January 2012
0 comment(s) · Read More
Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, Robbinsville NC

Written by Tom Hoffman

This is a memorial plaque to Joyce Kilmer, famous for the poem "Trees." The name is a pseudonym, and in fact Joyce Kilmer was a man. He died in action...

Written on 28 December 2011
0 comment(s) · Read More