Flying Bridge Modernizes As Part Of Longfellow Portfolio

Last year, Mr. Bogosian signed a 20-year lease with William C. Roberts, owner of the Flying Bridge property and adjacent marina, to manage the land and the adjacent dock slips. The agreement included an option to buy at the close.

The developer went on to buy the Flying Bridge business last month for an as yet-undisclosed sum from Linda Zammer, who had owned the restaurant with her late husband, William Zammer Jr., since 1994.

According to town records, the assessed value of the real estate at 220 Scranton Avenue, including the land the restaurant sits on and the adjacent docks, is $4.5 million—a more than fourfold increase over the 1992 assessed value of $1.1 million.

With the two-year anniversary of Mr. Zammer’s death approaching, Ms. Zammer said the time had come for a change.

“Everything has its time,” Ms. Zammer said. “Restaurants get tired. People get tired.”

Her decision to sell the business came at the same time as a decision by the restaurant’s longtime executive chef, Stuart E. Cote, to seek a change of his own.

“I’ll be 53 this year, and after 26 years in that kitchen, it’s getting tougher for me to do it,” said Mr. Cote. He and his wife have bought a house in southern Utah and plan to move there.

Taking his place is incoming chef Leon S. Biscoe III, a 51-year old who taught himself to cook after developing a love for food while being deployed in Italy with the US Navy.

Mr. Bogosian has given him the go-ahead to update the menu with haute cuisine flourishes such as grilled octopus and seared scallops with a clear tomato consommé. Mr. Biscoe has also introduced premium caviar, appealing to big-spending clientele, some of whom pull up to the restaurant in boats to dine.

“You’ll still get your classics there, but I also just want to do my touch, my signature on certain dishes,” Mr. Biscoe said.

The Flying Bridge revamp includes a sushi bar as well as interior updates, from modern sculptures to newly installed white quartz bars.

The acquisition and makeover of the Flying Bridge are part of a recent series of headline-grabbing business moves for the Longfellow founder, who set his sights on property development early on.

“I can remember him even as a little boy, wearing a tool belt and saying, ‘I want to be a builder,’” recalled Mr. Bogosian’s father, Barry J. Bogosian of Falmouth, a medical equipment sales executive.

At 16, the younger Mr. Bogosian owned his own small paint and construction business. He graduated 14 years ago from Boston College and started Longfellow Design Build 10 years ago, naming it after a street where he helped his father refurbish their family home.

Shortly after the company’s founding, dozens of Longfellow signs could be seen outside Falmouth homes being remodeled or rebuilt. Longfellow has since expanded, with offices in Osterville and Newton, and showrooms in Sandwich, Harwich Port, Boston, and Lincoln, New Hampshire.

At 36, Mr. Bogosian has gained control over a large portfolio of Falmouth real estate at a breathtaking clip.

In addition to the Flying Bridge, his major holdings include the Main Street complex that houses Aquatic Brewing, Timber Bar & Bowl next to Falmouth Town Hall, a shopping center at 870 Main Street, the Tides Motel in Falmouth Heights, Clipper Ship Apartments in East Falmouth, the former Vincent Real Estate building and his Main Street remodeling showroom building.

The brisk pace of acquisitions, and the ubiquity of Longfellow logos on signs and vehicles around town, have made Mr. Bogosian a lightning rod for mixed feelings about the speed with which Falmouth is gentrifying.

Still, Mr. Bogosian presents himself as someone committed to the good of the Falmouth community. “I am not a bulldozer,” Mr. Bogosian said, “I’m not looking to evict people.”

In fact, Longfellow owns myriad residential properties and rents them to around 50 of its roughly 200 employees, serving as its own kind of self-contained affordable housing department. “It does help attract talent,” Mr. Bogosian said.

Mr. Bogosian is also a sponsor of the Falmouth Road Race, the Falmouth Christmas Parade, and other charitable causes.

The Longfellow owner said his path to success has been complicated by the fact that he is dyslexic, a challenge shared by two of his three sons. “I had to work extra hard,” he said, “and I tell them, now you, too, have to work hard.”

Mr. Bogosian is married to Jeane M. Bogosian, who teaches 2nd grade at Mullen-Hall Elementary School.

In terms of business specifics, Mr. Bogosian is a cautious communicator, affably but vaguely citing “hard work and finding the right people” as the keys to his success. He explained his robust access to capital by saying he has “great relationships with banks.”

He demurred questions about the overall value of his holdings. “I don’t like to put a number on things in that way,” he insisted, “I just want to keep re-investing in Falmouth, and making things better.”

Mr. Bogosian has now formed Waterside Group, a holdings company, to manage all his assets.

“I’ve known him a long time,” said Waterside Group marketing director S. Michael Ciolino. “His talent is knowing how to walk into a space and improve it, and elevate it.”

Longfellow improvements carry a price tag, and not everyone is a fan. “He’s changing Falmouth,” said Nedo Puliti, owner of Italian Gourmet Foods on Main Street. Mr. Puliti relocated his store out of the 870 Main Street shopping center after, he said, Mr. Bogosian sought to double his rent.

Pre-construction pricing for the condos in Lighthouse Station, Mr. Bogosian’s 39-unit water view retirement condominium development in Woods Hole, which replaces the dilapidated Nautilus Motor Inn, starts at $1.3 million. He and a business partner paid $2.9 million for the 5.4-acre property in 2016.

Ms. Zammer wished Mr. Bogosian many years of success, describing him as a “dedicated businessman,” who clearly loves her former restaurant.

Ms. Zammer said she has not yet been by to visit the new Flying Bridge, but said she will when the time is right. “It’s just...it was in our lives for so long,” she said.