The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is accepting bids for a restaurant license in Elk County.
On Tuesday, the agency announced its eighth license auction since Act 39 became effective. The 2016 legislation authorizes the Liquor Control Board to auction restaurant liquor licenses that have expired since 2000.
The Elk County restaurant license is one of 25 across Pennsylvania that is up for bid in this auction.
Bids are due by noon March 25 using a sealed bid process. Bids will be opened March 28.
Participants must bid a minimum $25,000, and submitted bids must include a surety of either $5,000 or 5 percent of the total bid, whichever is higher. According to the agency, the purpose of the surety is to “avoid frivolous and underfunded bids.”
The highest bidder does not automatically receive the restaurant liquor license; rather, winners receive the right to apply for the license within six months of the auction award.
Bid payment must be received within two weeks of the auction award. If it’s not, the right to apply for the license will go to the second-highest bidder.
The Liquor Control Board will hold bid payments in escrow until each license application is approved.
Bidders with questions must submit inquiries via email to RA-LBLicenseAuction@pa.gov by noon Feb. 11. Bidders can then visit the Department of General Services e-marketplace website, where questions and answered will be posted by 3 p.m. Feb. 14.
One license in each of these counties is up for bid: Berks, Blair, Bucks, Clearfield, Dauphin, Delaware, Elk, Erie, Fayette, Huntingdon, Lackawanna, Lawrence, Lebanon, Lehigh, Lycoming, Mercer, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton, Philadelphia, Pike, Sullivan, Venango, Wayne and Westmoreland.
The Liquor Control Board website can be found at www.lcb.pa.gov.
To date, 235 licenses have been awarded using the sealed bid process in previous auctions, according to the agency. The agency has collected $24.1 million from the previous seven auctions, and another $4.9 million remains in escrow while license approvals are pending.
Taxes and store profits collected by the Liquor Control Board go to the commonwealth’s general fund, as well as the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs and other state agencies and local municipalities.
