Mega wine store loses appeal for Hartsdale license

An appeals court has upheld decisions by the New York State Liquor Authority and a lower court that denied a liquor license for a proposed mega wine store in Hartsdale.

The Third Appellate Division in Albany rejected arguments by White Plains Fine Wine & Spirits LLC that the denial was politically motivated and anticompetitive.

“We are satisfied that the SLA”™s determination was not arbitrary, capricious or irrational,” the appellate court ruled in a June 25 decision.

White Plains Fine Wine is affiliated with Total Wine & More, a Bethesda, Maryland, company that operates 209 superstores in 25 states. It bills itself as “America”™s Wine Superstore,” the largest independent retailer of fine wine, and the purveyor with the lowest prices.

A typical store stocks 8,000 different wines, 2,500 beers and 3,000 spirits, according to its website.

The $3 billion company, according to recent estimates, is owned by David Trone, a U.S. congressman in Maryland, and his brother, Robert Trone.

In 2018, the company proposed building a 21,093-square-foot store in The Dalewoods shopping center on Central Avenue in Hartsdale. Robert Trone applied to the state for a package store license.

Fifty-eight liquor stores and 25 elected officials opposed the application. The elected officials ranged from mayors to state senators, according to a license bureau memorandum, including White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach, Westchester County Executive George Latimer and state Sen. Shelley Mayer.

The liquor authority denied the license in 2018, finding that existing liquor stores adequately served Westchester.

White Plains Fine Wine petitioned Albany Supreme Court to overturn the decision. Last September, the court dismissed the petition and the company appealed that ruling.

The liquor authority must consider public convenience and advantage, the appellate court noted, and as long as the justifications are reasonable the decision must be upheld.

The liquor authority had found that existing stores sufficiently addressed the needs of consumers in the immediate area and that there was no demonstrated increase in demand for alcoholic beverages in Westchester.

Westchester has more than 200 liquor stores, including 50 within a 10-minute drive to the proposed store.

The liquor authority also was unpersuaded that the proposed store would be a unique regional destination. The Trones already operate three stores within 40 miles, in New Jersey, Norwalk, Connecticut and Westbury, Nassau County, based on the same business model.

White Plains Fine Wine had also argued that the liquor authority was swayed by political opposition, “infected” by the economic interests of nearby liquor stores and improperly took into account that Robert Trone did not live in New York.

“We are not convinced that the alleged improper justifications contributed to or formed a basis for the SLA”™s denial of petitioner”™s application,” the appellate court ruling states.

White Plains Fine Wine was represented by Harris Beach PLLC of Albany, and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP of Manhattan. New York State Liquor Authority was represented by staff attorneys Gary Meyerhoff and Mark D. Frering.