Liquor license auction open for some Southwestern Pa. counties

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) on Wednesday issued an invitation for bids for a set of expired restaurant liquor licenses, including some available in a handful of Southwestern Pennsylvania counties.

Twenty expired licenses are being auctioned Sept. 27. One license each is available in 20 counties, which includes one license for Allegheny County, Beaver County, Greene County, Indiana County and Somerset County.

Public opportunities to purchase liquor licenses don’t come very often. The PLCB — which runs 600 wine and liquor stores across Pennsylvania — manages a limited number of about 20,000 liquor licenses across the state. Liquor licenses are typically transferred between private buyers.

September’s auction is the 12th license action held by the PLCB since August 2016, officials said.

The PLCB said the minimum bid for each license is $25,000. But they tend to fetch much higher totals than that. Last year’s auction had an average bid of $154,833, with a high bid of more than $460,000 coming from Chester County.

Auction revenue recognized since 2016 totals $34.2 million so far, while another $1.9 million remains in escrow, pending license approvals, the PLCB said. Since the state-run liquor agency was started in 1933, it has returned $19.5 billion in tax revenue back into the state’s general fund.

Each bid must be accompanied by $5,000 or 5% of the total bid amount – whichever is higher – to avoid frivolous and underfunded bids, the release said. Bids for next month’s auction are due by noon Sept. 25.

Bidders with questions regarding this invitation for bids must submit inquiries via email to RA-LBLicenseAuction@pa.gov.