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Restaurateur's North County Empire Ends; Jae's Inn Set to Close

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
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A sign thanking customers was posted on the front door Tuesday.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Boston restaurateur Jae Chung's venture into North County is coming to a halt on Sunday as Jae's Inn closes its doors.

Workers were informed on Tuesday that the restaurant, 11-room inn and spa will be shuttered and a sign announcing the closure was posted on the front door.

A call to Chung has not yet been returned.

Chung, a former North Adams resident who found success with several Asian eateries in the Boston area, purchased the former Twin Sisters Inn in 1994. It was opened as Jae's Inn in 2002 but the restaurant was briefly moved to the former Le Jardin in Williamstown in 2006. After a falling out with his partners, the Williamstown location, purchased in 2004, was foreclosed on and put up for auction in the spring. Mezze Group partners Nancy Thomas and William "Bo" Peabody bought the restaurant and small inn for $575,000.

It was the same story for his attempts to keep the historic Miss Adams Diner open on Park Street in Adams. He purchased it in 1998 and leased it out to several operators, including as a short-lived seafood restaurant. This past October it was sold in a foreclosure auction to Paul and Jennifer Segala for $85,000.


Chung also bought the Colonial Shopping Plaza in Williamstown for $725,000 in 2001 and remortgaged the property for $1.1 million in 2007. A foreclosure was filed with the Land Court in October on the property by mortgageholder Cathay Bank.

The restaurant reopened in the North Adams location in summer 2008 but flirted with foreclosure earlier in the year.

In June, North Adams filed an instrument of taking that showed Chung owed the city $30,551.78 in back taxes, fees and expenses for 2008.

The sign on the door of the inn thanked patrons for their support and advised them that gift certificates would be honored by Jae's Spice in Pittsfield. Chung is leasing the North Street location from owners Lawrence M. Rosenthal and Joyce S. Bernstein, who were forced to close the original Spice in March 2008 after it incurred losses of more than $1.2 million.
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Macksey Updates on Eagle Street Demo and Myriad City Projects

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

The back of Moderne Studio in late January. The mayor said the city had begun planning for its removal if the owner could not address the problems. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Moderne Studio building is coming down brick by brick on Eagle Street on the city's dime. 
 
Concerns over the failing structure's proximity to its neighbor — just a few feet — means the demolition underway is taking far longer than usual. It's also been delayed somewhat because of recent high winds and weather. 
 
The city had been making plans for the demolition a month ago because of the deterioration of the building, Mayor Jennifer Macksey told the City Council on Tuesday. The project was accelerated after the back of the 150-year-old structure collapsed on March 5
 
Initial estimates for demolition had been $190,000 to $210,000 and included asbestos removal. Those concerns have since been set aside after testing and the mayor believes that the demolition will be lower because it is not a hazardous site.
 
"We also had a lot of contractors who came to look at it for us to not want to touch it because of the proximity to the next building," she said. "Unfortunately time ran out on that property and we did have the building failure. 
 
"And it's an unfortunate situation. I think most of us who have lived here our whole lives and had our pictures taken there and remember being in the window so, you know, we were really hoping the building could be safe."
 
Macksey said the city had tried working with the owner, who could not find a contractor to demolish the building, "so we found one for him."
 
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