A major real estate deal in Menemsha will provide a new home for the Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust and help bring back a grocer and deli counter to the fishing village.
On Thursday, Sarah Bernard and James Seppala purchased 10 Basin Road, the former home to the Poole Fish Plant and Chilmark Chandlery, for $3.1 million. The couple will lease the property out to the fishing nonprofit, as well as Kevin and Liz Oliver, the former managers of the Menemsha Market.
The property has three buildings on it: the former fish plant, the former Menemsha Deli location and a cottage.
The trust will open a new expanded headquarters in the fish plant building after securing a 99-year lease from Ms. Bernard and Mr. Seppala, and the Olivers plan to run a new market in the former deli location.
The promise of reinvigorating the long vacant property, once owned by Menemsha mainstay Everett Poole, while also maintaining the village’s roots, appealed to Ms. Bernard, whose family has been coming to the Island for more than 50 years.
“It’s not often that an opportunity like this presents itself,” Ms. Bernard said in a statement. “The 99-year lease to the MVFPT will allow it to meaningfully expand its work, while the additional properties can provide affordable housing and return a market to the harbor. Menemsha is a special place and we look forward to helping preserve its character for future generations.”
The trust, which works to preserve the Vineyard’s fishing fleet and protect the marine habitat off the Island’s coast, will now be able to have office space for the first time, and the organization will be able to scale up its processing of fish and shellfish for consumers in the new building.
“Their purchase of this irreplaceable property will not only jump start some of our dreams for our fishing industry and expand the larger community’s access to local seafood, but it gives us real stability in our work and keeps us in the heart of Menemsha and close to those we serve,” Shelley Edmundson, the executive director of the Fishermen’s Preservation Trust, said in a statement.
Both the trust and the Olivers hope to have the new headquarters and market open for the summer of 2026.
Currently, the trust operates out of a small building next to Larsen’s Fish Market. John Keene, the president of the fishermen’s preservation trust, said that having the larger space will be instrumental moving forward.
“We want to keep Menemsha, and the Island fishing industry as a whole, as vibrant as we can,” he said. “If you don’t have infrastructure, it doesn’t matter how much fish you catch, you need the infrastructure and the places to support the fishermen and process and market.”
As the deal was being forged between the trust and Ms. Bernard and Mr. Seppala, Mr. Keene reached out to Mr. Oliver to see if he and his wife Liz would be interested in bringing their former business back. Mr. Oliver seized the opportunity and wants to do both a market and deli.
“We’re overwhelmed and excited at the same time,” he said. “We have room to do both a market and hopefully a deli as well and get to bring both of those businesses back, so to speak, which should be great.”
The former Menemsha Market was damaged in an electrical fire in 2019 and has been sitting vacant ever since. That parcel was not involved in the deal, but Mr. Oliver recalled how the town was intertwined with the business.
“It wasn’t some giant money maker, but to be involved in the community in that way, was really special,” he said. “There’s just been a big hole in Menemsha because of [the fire], so this really fills it.”
The changes in the historic fishing village are a welcome revitalization, select board chair Marie Larsen said.
“I am really happy that we are going to have something and clean up in that area,” she said. “It’s about time we had something there. I’m thrilled.”
Mr. Keene hopes this change is a chance for the town to further restore the historic character that is essential to the core of the village.
“It brings another part of Menemsha back to life that slowly had a decline,” he said. “It also supplies hope that the industry can expand and gives a lot more opportunities.”
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