The new location of Little India will be next door to Market Basket, a supermarket known for its parking issues.

By Tom Nash

A last-minute move to stop an Indian grocer from moving in next to Somerville's busiest supermarket was defeated last week, leading owner Dipti Mistri to claim a victory for small business.

Mistri, who has operated Little India with her husband, Umesh, since 1985, says she had long been eyeing the warehouse adjacent to the Market Basket across the street from her relatively cramped Bow Street store. The move would give her store, which stocks mostly bulk items, roughly 2,000 more square feet.

"I've been looking at that place almost 10 years," Mistri said. "Now, I have it."

The warehouse, a former boxing club and paper supply store, has housed artist studios since the 1980s. Its new owner, Cambridge real estate developer Raymond Bandar, says he would like to keep them, but needs a commercial tenant to pay the bills.

Mistri is more than happy to fill the role. Armed with a recently gained package store license, she said the location should see brisk business from loyal customers who usually make trips to Market Basket as well.

"My customers come from as far away as Quincy, Framingham, Brighton. They want one-stop shopping," Mistri said.

That's where the problem begins. Little India's new location comes without any allotted parking, as the space around the building is already dedicated to the artist studios. Attorney Richard DiGirolamo maintains parking for the nearly century-old building is not required – an interpretation the city has now affirmed twice.

Market Basket, already plagued with crowding issues, challenged the project before the Zoning Board of Appeals in January, after a renovation permit had already been issued and work had begun, arguing that the change in use from warehouse to market requires parking spaces to be added.

A stop work order was issued, leaving the project in limbo.

"We call this the case of the elephant and the ant," DiGirolamo said before the June 2 ZBA ruling in Little India's favor. "They're pulling out all the stops to make sure Dipti doesn't have her market."

In a letter to Mayor Joseph Curtatone, Mistri made a similar argument. "After nearly a year of spending on architectural consultants, real-estate agents, rent and now lawyers, we seemed to be on the verge of realizing our dream when the giant Market Basket decided to crush our small business like Goliath," she wrote.

An attorney representing Demoulas Super Markets, the owners of Market Basket, declined to comment on the case.

Ward 2 Alderman Maryann Heuston, who has criticized Market Basket's handling of its parking lot in the past, said she couldn't blame Little India for wanting to move in.

"It's going to be a difficult situation," Heuston said. "It's not [Little India's] fault, it's more that the owner of the building needs to think about the kind of uses they're going to have in there."

While DiGirolamo stressed that anyone found to be parking in Market Basket's lot and shopping at Little India would be towed, Mistri maintains her customers mostly rely on public transportation, and that moving across the street won't radically change the already complicated parking situation on Bow Street.

"This is a specialty store," she said. "People will park where they can."

Mistri said she expects to begin moving in July, but wasn't sure when the new store would open its doors. While she said she is still looking forward to having more space, she is also thinking about how to educate customers about the parking issue, even though she doesn't believe it will be a major issue.

"It's 20 registers to one," she said, referring to her new neighbor. "The money they make at one register, I make in one day … But I'm going to put up two big, big signs that say 'Don't park at Market Basket.'"