The Wampanoag Tribe will purchase Back Alley’s in West Tisbury for a price reported to be in the high six figures.
Howard and Susie Ulfelder, longtime owners of the up-Island bakery and deli, have already accepted the tribe’s offer and expect the deal to close in the next few weeks.
The purchase will consolidate tribal ownership of Back Alley’s with its management of Alley’s General Store, which the tribe leases from the Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust.
“Back Alley’s was always part of the plan,” said Jim Fuller, the tribe’s economic development director this week. “The combination of the two of them allows you to rearrange some of the restrictive condominium regulations that were established when the two buildings were separated.”
The regulations Mr. Fuller refers to are part of an agreement reached when Mr. Ulfelder sold Alley’s General Store to the Preservation Trust in 1993. The agreement, which restricts competition between the two businesses, would effectively be moot now.
“The general store isn’t allowed to sell fresh bread. You have to go to Back Alley’s for that,” explained Mr. Fuller. “When you go to a grocery store you expect to be able to buy a loaf of fresh bread. Likewise, restrictions at Back Alley’s create equal types of stumbling blocks. We’d like to broaden the nature of their food offerings, offer a broader selection of sandwiches, maybe some stews. Looking at the business that Back Alley’s is doing, I think we could give it a big boost just by reviving menus and offering a broader spectrum of possibilities.”
Mr. Ulfelder is pleased to be selling Back Alley’s to the tribe.
“I think the tribe will be a wonderful custodian of this institution,” Mr. Ulfelder said. “I have a lot of friends in that community and I think it’s good for the Island and for them to have this kind of presence. I think they’ll do a great job. They certainly have done what I think is an outstanding job in the front store.”
The Preservation Trust was given the right of first refusal on the sale, but declined the offer. Christopher Scott, the Preservation Trust’s director, could not be reached for comment.
Back Alley’s was never put on the market. Mr. Ulfelder and his wife were in the process of turning over the business to their daughter, Jennifer, when the tribe approached them with an offer last spring. At that point, Mr. and Mrs. Ulfelder — who left the Island five years ago — had little to do with the daily operations of Back Alley’s. So they left the decision to their daughter, who has managed the bakery and deli for the past seven years. After thinking about it, Jennifer decided it was time for her to move on in life as well.
Back Alley’s has been in the Ulfelder family since 1986.
“It was a wonderful time for us. We have fond memories of the Island, and fond memories of Alley’s and Back Alley’s,” Mr. Ulfelder said from his home in New Hampshire. “When you make a final severing as we’re doing now, it tugs at your heart a little bit, but we’ve moved on. I’m 65 now and I’m retired, my wife is retired, and this is the time for us to not have to worry about these kinds of matters. And Jenny’s going to go on and do some other things.”
Mr. Ulfelder said he always felt that Back Alley’s and Alley’s General Store should be run as one business, but that he wasn’t able to do it himself.
He praised the Preservation Trust for the work they’ve done on Alley’s General Store.
“I could not as a businessman have made the economic decision to do what they did with the physical plant of Alley’s,” he said. “It was critical to have somebody like the Preservation Trust come and take that sort of white elephant of a building off my hands and restore it to its former grandeur. It’s in nicer condition now than it’s ever been.”
Comments