For the past two years, the building that once housed the Station 885 and Stella’s Trackside restaurants has sat vacant.
A business owner is working to revamp the site at 885 Starkweather St. in Plymouth’s historic Old Village neighborhood. Owners intend to reopen the decaying 90-year-old building as Plymouth Trackside, a fine-dining restaurant and event space.
“This is an opportunity to really rejuvenate that site and build a really nice fine-dining restaurant out of it,” owner Donald Soenen told city commissioners earlier this month. “I think it’ll be a real asset to the city, certainly to Old Village. There’s a lot of excitement within Old Village, so we will do a downtown, first-class job. I’ve got nothing but the best people working on this project — from architects, contractors, staffing and the like. It will be a nice place.”
Soenen said he hopes to complete Plymouth Trackside’s transformation and launch its debut by early 2024.
Station 885 operated from the locale for more than 30 years before Stella’s Trackside relocated there in March 2019 for a short-lived stint. Stella’s Trackside was a casualty of the pandemic and city commissioners transferred its bar permit and liquor license to the new owners May 1.
The restaurant sits along train tracks that allow CSX freights to rumble through Plymouth’s downtown. Soenen and his team plan to overhaul and expand the 7,300 square-foot restaurant.
The full-service upscale restaurant will serve American cuisine staples like steaks, chicken, seafood and salad dinners. Lunch fare will include burgers, small plates and appetizers.
Outdoor seating fronted the restaurant looking out on Starkweather Street in the past. The new owners will move that patio to the back of the building next to an event space they intend to add, according to site plans.
The outdoor seating up front will be converted into an indoor dining room. The developers will also add a storage room and walk-in cooler on the north side of the building.
Soenen helped spearhead restoration efforts at the Penn Theatre and the Plymouth Arts & Recreation Complex. He still serves as president of the Arts & Recreation center.
The city’s planning commission reviewed plans for Plymouth Trackside on May 10. Soenen said he acquired the restaurant building three years ago and considered demolishing it, noting an extensive list of problems currently plaguing the ailing building. He told board members the overhaul will be expensive, but constructing a new structure in the Old Village corridor was the wrong move.
“I know this community is very sensitive about historic buildings,” Soenen said. “That place has been around about 90 years and everybody I talked to that ever grew up here, they were there as kids eating and having dinner. So there’s a lot of nostalgic value.”
As part of the preservation, Plymouth Trackside will be outfitted with a brand new kitchen and HVAC system, upgraded acoustics and state=of-the-art equipment.
“My decision was instead of bulldozing it down was to see what I can do and really make a fine-dining restaurant out of it, with appropriate entertainment for a fine-dining crowd,” Soenen said. “It’ll be a very, very nice restaurant. Little pricey maybe, but I think this market can support that. So I’m gung ho.”
