Bill Pritt, who already operates three Downtown restaurants, has announced plans to convert the former home of Dean Johnson Design at 646 Mass Ave into a restaurant.
But in a Facebook post he added that the project probably won’t serve its first customers for a year.
Pritt has a name for the future restaurant – Score. He described the venture as “another all-inclusive, welcoming connecting point for our community centered around entertainment, sports and music. We plan to serve great food and beverages, but hospitality will be our number one offering.
“I really do believe sports and music and entertainment bring people together from all different backgrounds, so thinking about what I want Score to be,” he added.
Pritt, who heads Diagonal Hospitality Group, already operates two Mass Ave venues, FortyFive Degrees and Metro. His most recent addition to the restaurant scene is Harrison’s, located in the former bank building at Delaware and North streets.
Pritt said he first tried to acquire the two-story building which sits at the corner of Mass Ave, Park Avenue and Walnut Street in 2021. “Thankfully, a door opened this spring to take another pass at 646 and we got it.”
The structure was built in 1996 by Bruce Dean and Scott Johnson of Design Johnson Design. The first floor was home to Dean Johnson Gallery, a key element of that decade’s gallery scene which helped re-energize Mass Ave.
After Dean Johnson Design left the building, it was briefly the home of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library. But structure issues within the building derailed that project. Since that time, Stenz Construction proposed to demolish the building and replace it with a four-story mixed-use building.
The site sits within the Chatham Arch and Massachusetts Avenue Historic Preservation District. After changes to the original Stenz petition, the IHPC approved the petition in June 2018. But that plan was never realized.
The property includes a grassy lawn, which Pritt indicated may become part of the restaurant. A rooftop bar is also a possibility.
Pritt also said he is pondering a longer-term plan to demolish the two-story building in favor of a four- or five-story structure which could house Score on the ground floor and upper-level residential units or even a boutique hotel.
