J Pepper Frazier Real Estate moving to 19 Centre St.
BY MARY LANCASTER
By early next winter, the J Pepper Real Estate firm will be carting its broker's desks, phones and files from 28 Centre St. to 19 Centre St. as change continues to ripple through the island's downtown business sector.

The company owns 19 Centre, most recently leased to Best of the Beach for approximately the last four years. While the Fraziers were very happy with Best of the Beach owner Elaine Martin as a tenant, when she decided this fall not to renew her lease they viewed that as a somewhat bittersweet windfall.

Wanting to expand from the building they have fronting both sides of the corner at Centre and India streets, partners J. Pepper Frazier II, Dalton Frazier and Stephen and Jason Meister thought relocating to the available Tonkin building at Main and Federal streets sounded like a good idea, even though they would be moving in next door to The Maury People.

They were prepared to pay $5.4 million for the Tonkin property and had a closing scheduled for last month. But when Martin declined to renew her lease, the partners determined that it was worth it to sacrifice their $275,000 deposit, forego a multi-million outlay and occupy a building that is already theirs in a well-traveled area not directly next door to another realty office.

"At that point our brain started turning," said Dalton Frazier. "[The space at 19 Centre St.] is deep and wide enough for desks. It's pretty ideal."

Frazier said the company is advancing well in negotiations for new tenants at its current office location as well as at 13 Centre St. being vacated by Ceri owner Ellen Shapiro. The firm anticipates moving by February or so and looks forward to being surrounded on the historic Petticoat Row by many successful ventures.

"I think it's going to be great for all of us," said Jason Meister. "Hopefully, we will get a lot more traffic. We're pretty excited about it."

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