New Libby's Lunch owner now says he will renovate, not demolish. Menu will have hot dogs

PATERSON — The new owner of the Libby’s Lunch property said Monday that he no longer is looking to demolish the one-story cinderblock building and instead will do renovations so he can reopen the restaurant in about three months.

Sal Washah, who made the highest bid, $850,000 , for the property in the city’s land auction in April, also is making changes in his proposed menu to include the wieners that North Jersey residents have associated with Libby’s for decades.

“We will be selling hot dogs, that’s for sure,” Washah said in a phone interview, adding that Philly cheesesteaks, falafel and ice cream will also be for sale.

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Washah said renovations started about a week ago. There’s been a Dumpster filled with debris — including some of the diner-style seats once used by customers — next to the Libby’s building for the past several days.

In several years, Washah said, he may expand the building and construct additional floors for dining on top of the existing structure.

Officials at the State Historic Preservation Office have said the Libby’s Lunch land sale and construction plans needed their approval, because the property sits within the Great Falls historic district. Washah said his lawyers have conferred with the state’s lawyers and gotten the preservation office’s blessing for the renovations.

State says it is still reviewing Libby's sale and project

But state officials rebutted that assertion. They told Paterson Press on Monday that the preservation office was still conducting its review of the sale and project.

The state has not revealed what it would do — if anything — about work starting at the site without preservation office approval.

Paterson activist David Soo alerted the state to Paterson’s Libby’s auction during the spring, something that apparently had not been done by the city officials. After being contacted by Soo, the state preservation office sent Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh a letter in May saying the city’s auction needed prior approval from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

“This is an illegal sale,” Soo asserted. “We know it’s illegal because the state says it still has to be reviewed.”

Soo said Sayegh is allowing Washah to move ahead with his Libby project without approvals because the mayor knows the businessman.

“Mayor Sayegh is intentionally disregarding state law,” Soo said.

Sayegh did not provide answers Monday when asked about Washah’s revised Libby’s plans, saying in a text message that he was away with his family.

City said Libby's 'non-contributing' to historic district

State officials on Sunday provided Paterson Press with a copy of the city’s application for the Libby’s sale, which the Sayegh administration submitted several weeks ago. The city’s application said its review of the property concluded that the Libby’s building was “non-contributing” to the historic district.

The application noted the Great Falls district’s significance in America’s Industrial Revolution. “The subject property is neither a historic mill nor an industrial property,” said the application. The city also said Libby’s Lunch was “not relevant to the historic themes” at the Great Falls.

The application said Libby’s Lunch opened on Paterson Street in 1919 and was owned by William Pappas, who emigrated from Greece five years earlier. Pappas moved his business in 1936 to its McBride Avenue site, where it operated in a “roadside stand” configuration near a boathouse along the Passaic River.

In 1953, Libby’s was damaged in a fire, the city application said. A story back then in The Morning Call attributed the blaze to vagrants. But the next day, The Morning Call reported that the fire was started by a 13-year-old boy who wanted revenge against Pappas for identifying him as a burglar, resulting in the juvenile being sent to a detention facility in Jamesburg. The boy had escaped from Jamesburg on a Saturday night and made his way back to Paterson to burn the business on Sunday, the news story said.

After the fire, Pappas built the new cinderblock structure that has stood there for the past 71 years.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: New Libby's Lunch owner now says he will renovate, not demolish. Menu will have hot dogs