Partway through a February 2025 hearing on tearing down the old building at Main and Ocean, Chair Cheryl Powell asked whether there might be a mural inside worth saving.
"All the walls have caved in," the owner, Marcello Mallegni, answered, according to the minutes of the Hyannis Main Street Waterfront Historic District Commission.
A few minutes later, Commissioner Kevin Matthews tried a smaller ask. It was "Sad that building has to come down," he said, and he wondered whether some small thing could be salvaged. An octagonal window, maybe.
Hold on to that window.
A grocery, a gallery, a museum, a stage
The building at 337 Main St. had more lives than most on the street. "The 1915 brick building has been a grocery store, the Hibel Art Gallery, a museum and a performing arts venue among other uses," the Cape Cod Times reported the day of that hearing. (The town's minutes say 1935.) Alberto's Restaurant used the rear for 14 years before moving across Main Street around 1993, the paper said. The vacant lot next door, 345 Main, is where a movie theater once stood.
By 2025 the building had sat empty for more than 20 years. A 2008 plan for the same corner, 22 condominiums called One Ocean Street, was approved and then collapsed into foreclosure, the Times reported. Mallegni told the paper the new plans were basically the same.
Nobody on the commission argued to keep the building standing. Presenting for the applicant, attorney Patrick Nickerson cited a 2015 fire department report, summarized in the minutes as "Moderate potential for collapse and fire, structural concerns, roof and floor rot." Elizabeth Wurfbain, director of the Hyannis Business Improvement District, said: "Sad and unfortunate that this cannot be saved."
What should replace it was the fight. Plans called for four stories over 337 and 345 Main, a first-floor restaurant and 22 homes. "Need housing desperately," said Commissioner Peri Wentworth. Town Councilor Betty Ludtke called it a "massive collision with form based guidelines."
A guideline, or a regulation?
On March 19, demolition passed 7-0, according to the minutes. Then the argument turned to height, and to a district guideline that limits how much taller a new building can rise right next to an existing one: 15 feet.
Attorney John Kenney said it was "not a regulation it's a guideline," and told the board, "Town Father's disagree with you and the ordinance disagrees with you."
The findings for the new building came back three in favor, three against, and one abstention. "Vote does not pass," the minutes say.
The window came back
The applicant had filed an appeal, then decided to refile instead, the May 21 minutes record. The architect said the upper floors step back, so it "Will not feel like a four story building," with a top roof line at 50.8 feet. The old bricks were dropped: the applicant asked to use new brick, and Matthews agreed the old brick would not match very well.
Then Matthews asked about the window: could they keep it, or replicate it? "It's going to be octagonal window," Nickerson answered. "This window can actually be re used and a half round one that can be used as well."
Matthews wasn't voting that night; the minutes note beforehand that Commissioners Watson and Wentworth would vote instead. The minutes record that he "would have voted for the project at this point." Commissioner Tom Doherty didn't budge: "beautiful building, but not for Main Street Hyannis." The findings passed 6-1, and so did the certificate, on conditions: lighting to be added, octagonal and half-round windows on the north and east sides, and new brick.
What's on the corner this fall
On Oct. 1, the Cape Cod Times reported that construction is underway on a four-story building with a restaurant and 22 condominiums. (The paper gave the address as 377 Main; the town's records use 337 and 345.) We haven't seen permits showing whether today's construction matches the May 2025 plans in every detail.
Separately, the town's Great Streets project will return Main and nearby streets to two-way traffic, at the earliest by summer 2027.
The approval lists new brick. It also lists an octagonal window, the one piece of the old corner two commissioners asked in February to keep.
The details
Where: 337 and 345 Main St., at Ocean Street, Hyannis (map)
What the May 21, 2025 record describes: four-story mixed-use building, first-floor restaurant, 22 units above, 50.8-foot top roof line; conditions on lighting, octagonal and half-round windows, and new brick
Votes: demolition 7-0 (Mar. 19, 2025); new-building findings 3-3-1, failed (Mar. 19); findings and certificate 6-1 (May 21)
Status: old building demolished June 2026; construction underway, per the Cape Cod Times, Oct. 1, 2026
Separate project: Downtown Hyannis Great Streets; two-way traffic no earlier than summer 2027