New owner plans Italian restaurant at former Napoleon’s in Warrenton

Horacio Magalhaes believes he knows a good buy when he sees it.

That’s why the 45-year-old contractor, real estate developer and investor, and his brother Carlos, 39, recently paid The Fauquier Bank $350,000 for the old Napoleon’s restaurant building and site, which for tax purposes the county values at almost $1.2 million.

Ideally, the Magalhaes brothers want to reopen the place as an Italian restaurant, said Horacio, who explained it would take at least 12 months and $500,000 to $1 million to renovate the property at 67 Waterloo St., Warrenton.

"There’s a lot of work that needs to be done," Horacio, who lives near Warrenton, said Monday during a two-hour interview and tour of the property. "Everything basically needs to be replaced."

He estimates that at least 30 percent of the electrical system and drywall must be replaced. All of the heating and air conditioning duct work and carpets need replacement, Magalhaes said.

In places, the restaurant shows obvious signs of water damage with fallen and stained pieces of ceiling and pealing walls. In a small, upstairs office, water formed a puddle on a desktop. In another room, vandals apparently smashed assorted glassware, which was scattered across the floor.


Magalhaes would like to relocate the kitchen, from the second floor to the basement, and remove interior walls to provide a more open look and make better use of space.

The wood floors will be refinished, he said, pointing to spots where layers of paint had worn away. He called the building structurally sound.

Exterior work will include repair and repainting of the stucco walls and resurfacing the parking lot, Magalhaes said.

He envisions an Italian restaurant that would provide upscale dining on weekends and weekday lunch and dinner for people who want quick and efficient service at affordable prices.

"That’s the concept," said Magalhaes, who moved to the United States about 25 years ago from Portugal. "We’ll see."

In the end, the market will determine what he does with the property in a year or so, he said.

Financially, he said it might make more sense for the company to resell the improved property.
In interviews, neighbors welcomed the idea of a restaurant.

Charles Bland, 43, has lived his entire life in the Diagonal Street home right next to the property. "It’ll be good," Bland said who remembers when it was an apartment house with a big lawn where as a boy he played football. "It’ll create jobs for people."

Michele Ferri lives at 12 Smith St. and faces the back side of the restaurant building.I’m very happy somebody’s going to come in," said Ferri, a commercial architect for a Reston firm who serves on the Town of Warrenton Architectural Review Board. "I moved in when it was a restaurant, so I didn’t go into it with a blind eye."

Ferri believes issues like noise and delivery trucks blocking Smith Street can be easily resolved.

"You have to have an owner who cares enough to know they’re up against a residential neighborhood," she said.

Magalhaes’ company, H & C Investors LLC, closed on the 7,200-square-foot stucco building and 0.6-acre commercial lot in early December.

The bank had loaned the previous owner, Grand American LLC, $1.6 million to acquire the place. In 2010, it foreclosed on the corporation, took back the abandoned restaurant and assumed $1.5 million in debt.

Attempts to sell the property through a local Realtor and a public auction failed. The bank won’t "necessarily" suffer a $1.2 million loss on the property, according to Jeff Sisson, Fauquier Bank’s vice president and chief lending officer.


"You’re not going to recover all of it, but you will exhaust all sources" of potential income, he said.

The Harway family opened Napoleon’s in 1978. In 2002, it sold the restaurant and property to Al Nosrat, who four years later sold it to Grand American.