A demolition permit issued for the Milford Diner downtown is getting mixed reviews.

The prefabricated, stainless steel building and its wooden annex have been vacant for more than five years, and several attempts to develop it have fallen through. Now it looks as if the iconic 1948 building will be giving way to badly needed parking, officials said.

"Obviously whoever owns it has the right to do whatever he wants with it," said Robert Gregory, the city's economic development director. "I think there is more sentimental value than actual value in it, and the different ideas for it haven't happened. That's where we're at."

The land at 13-21 New Haven Ave., which has the diner, Vincent Jewelers and the SBC Restaurant on it, is owned by Paul Dumraese, of Milford, and is assessed for $893,000, 70 percent of the market value.

Dumraese said Tuesday that while his family has owned the site since the 1920s, several businesses have leased the land and owned the buildings on it. "We don't own the diner, but a lot of people think that we do."

Developer Robert Smith, who with his partner owned the diner building and the fieldstone structure that houses SBC, said that his company sold the diner to the SBC Restaurant Group.

SBC owner William DaSilva did not return phone messages left for him at the restaurant's Milford and Hamden locations on Tuesday, but downtown merchants speculated that the site would be used to expand the restaurant's parking lot.

From Thursday through Saturday, a valet parks cars for the popular restaurant, fitting them into the lot between SBC and the diner.

"It isn't 75 years old, so that's why I wasn't notified," City Historian Richard Platt said. A city ordinance requires that Platt be notified before a historic structure can be demolished. The Board of Aldermen is considering changes that would reduce that time period to 50 years and allow any interested party to sign up for notification.

The city historian said the Milford Trust for Historic Preservation may look into the matter. "It is certainly something that we're interested in," Platt said. "The Connecticut Trust asked for a list of endangered properties and I gave them Harrison's [hardware store on Broad Street], 417 Gulf Street and the diner."

The Memaj family owned and operated the Milford Diner for nearly 40 years before retiring about five years ago. Developer Ronald Lombard briefly owned the structure and planned to move it to a shopping plaza he owns on Melba Street. When those plans fell through, Smith and his partner Philip Craft bought it and considered uses, including a women's apparel store and a casual restaurant.

Members of the city's Economic Development Commission discussed at their April 22 meeting using the diner building as a visitors center, citing its location between the harbor and the train station.

"I was heartened by the EDC's suggestion that this unique building could be put to good use," said Susan Shaw, owner of the Collected Stories Bookstore. "It is an icon of downtown. Now, just a few weeks after their consideration was made public, to find that there is now a demolition permit for this 1948 structure makes my heart sink."

Originally published online here: http://www.connpost.com/ci_12309935