Park Station and Souy restaurant reopen lot as outdoor dining and neighborhood anchor

A multi-building adaptive-reuse project at Park Street and San Jose Avenue was presented to the Historical Advisory Board as a completed conversion that turns a former service and parking lot into a restaurant, tap house and outdoor dining plaza.

The presenters described the property’s evolution from a 1920s car-storage and later factory building through numerous expansions, a period as Big O Tires and eventual vacancy. The current owners performed structural work (new roof, roof insulation), removed a storage shed, created a connecting restroom building between the long tap-house structure and the small Park Street-fronting restaurant, and replaced asphalt parking with a landscaped outdoor dining area.

Materials and design decisions included replacing roll-up service doors with glass roll-ups, introducing painted wall signage to echo historic advertising, a green wall on a restroom elevation, refurbished clerestory windows with translucent glass, and murals commissioned from local artists to animate roll-up doors and interior walls. The project team said upgrades allowed the restaurant to host families, dogs and events while tying the site to the surrounding street network.

Board members commended the project for activating a long-idle corner and converting asphalt parking into public-facing dining and landscape. The board noted adaptive reuse as a preservation strategy because occupied buildings are more likely to be maintained and preserved over time.