Developers to Invest $50K to Rehab Yoken's Sign

Months before they even broke ground at the former Yoken's restaurant and conference site on Lafayette Road, the developers who make up the 4 Amigos LLC group knew how important the former "Thar She Blows" sign is to the city.

On Tuesday afternoon, workers with the Portsmouth Sign Co. will take down the sign that has been covered up so it can be rehabilitated and then reused when the new $10 million commercial and retail project is completed later this summer, according to Jim Mitchell, who represents the 4 Amigos LLC group.

"It needs to leave the site to be rebabbed," Mitchell said. "It is in bad condition."

Mitchell said the developers and Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank, one of the new businesses that will be going into the site, have agreed to invest less than $50,000 to completely rehabilitate the sign so it will look just like it did when it welcomed visitors to the former restaurant and conference center, he said.

"It's an extremely expensive investment to have the sign rehabbed," Mitchell said. He said the Portsmouth Sign Co. will dismantle the sign, sand blast it, paint it and install new circuitry so the lights and neon will function again.

the $10 million development project will create a new Rite-Aid pharmacy, a Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank and a Five Guys Burger and Fries restaurant. He said the proposal received final approval from the Portsmouth Planning Board in 2012.

The former Yoken's restaurant and conference center closed in 2004 and the site has been vacant for more than eight years.

Scott Mitchell said then they also plan to save the former Yoken's conference center "Thar She Blows" sign that is still wrapped in white plastic. He said they will preserve it as is with one exception. Instead of saying "Yoken's Good Things to Eat" it will say "Yoken's Plaza."

Jim Mitchell said the developers also need to get a variance from the Planning Board before they can even repost the former Yoken's sign. They also want to place it 50- to 75 yards closer to the intersection off of Lafayette Road that will lead into the new development instead of its current location.

He said they hope to complete the new development and repost the rehabbed Yoken's sign in July with grand openings to be held in August.