Owners of The Med buy 901 Pearl for $2.3M, eye January opening for Via Perla

BOULDER — The owners of The Mediterranean Restaurant and Brasserie Ten Ten have closed on the $2.3 million purchase of the ground-floor space at 901 Pearl St., where they plan to open a new Italian restaurant this winter.

Via Perla will be a 160-seat upscale restaurant, complete with an outdoor patio with views of the Flatirons. Walnut Restaurant Group director of operations Greg Topel estimates a January opening for the restaurant, which will employ up to 100 people.

The restaurant will take up the majority of the ground floor of the redeveloped property at 901 Pearl, a site that had previously housed various tenants, including a Tesla Motors showroom and Marisol Imports. The second and third floors of the new project will include five residential condominiums.

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The Romano family, using the entity 901 Pearl Unit 100 LLC, bought the restaurant space from 901 Eldridge Inc., a group of investors led by Deneuve Construction owner Phil Shull.

Topel said owner Peg Romano has been considering adding an Italian concept to her lineup of restaurants for about a decade. Romano is designing the restaurant herself. Kelly Kingsford, executive chef at The Med and Brasserie Ten Ten, will serve in the same role for Via Perla, meanwhile.

“This was the right time and the right place,” said Topel, who has been with the company for 16 years in various roles, including starting as a server. “It’s going to be pretty spectacular.

“The Romanos live three blocks away from these restaurants and love being part of the Boulder community.”

Construction began on the 901 Pearl redevelopment in June 2014. Deneuve is general contractor, and is working on tenant finish for the restaurant now.

The residential condos, which include two on the second floor and three on the third, range in size from 1,100 square feet to just shy of 2,700 square feet. Shull said four of the five have been sold. He declined to divulge the sale prices, but did say the asking price on the fifth, a 2,640-square-foot unit, would be about $1,000 per square foot, or roughly $2.64 million.

The restaurant will be about 4,400 square feet. As part of their real estate purchase, the Romanos also own an adjacent 800-square-foot retail suite that Topel said will be leased to another user at least for near term.

With the Via Perla opening nearing, Topel said Romano has other restaurant concepts in mind for Boulder. But he said those plans are longer term.

“We’re going to be talking about that no sooner than a year, year and a half after this restaurant opens,” Topel said.