Tough times can even drive businesses to drink.

Case in point: Parry’s Market — housed inside the familiar barn-style building at the intersection of old Broadway and American Canyon Road in American Canyon — could soon become a liquor store.

On Aug. 27, the city Planning Commission  approved a conditional use permit that may allow Anna Jas Enterprise LLC, the store owner’s company, to obtain a liquor license from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

“We want to increase the business just to survive,” said Bagicha “Bill” Hothi after the Planning Commission unanimously approved his conditional use permit.

The building was constructed in 1979 on land owned by the Teichiera and Elliott families. The store, then known as the Fruit Tree Market, received permits in the 1980s to sell beer, wine and food. The market changed hands at least twice before Hothi and his family began leasing the building in 2003.

The planning commission asked Hothi to repave and restripe the front of the building, paint the wheelchair-accessible ramp with bright colors so people won’t trip over it, pull weeds, improve the landscaping and install a screen for an existing patio near American Canyon Road.

“We want to make sure the entire neighborhood is very pleasant-looking,” American Canyon Planning Commission Chairman Joseph Meck said last week, noting that the market is near a future Walgreens.

“I think the business is fine. We want to make sure it succeeds,” Meck said.

Hothi already owns a beer and wine — or Type 41 — license from Alcoholic Beverage Control.

He applied for the conditional use permit in January in order to be able to obtain a Type 21 license, a permit that allows the sale of hard liquor as well as beer and wine.

The alcohol has to be consumed off-premises, explained Alcoholic Beverage Control spokesman John Carr.

Hothi said his company wants to purchase the license for $50,000 from Les Lawson, who operated a market store at the corner of Donaldson Way and Highway 29 until 2005. The market was leveled to make room for the extension of Donaldson Way to the new Vintage Ranch subdivision.

The Type 21 license application is pending, said Juliette Lac, a spokeswoman for Alcohol Beverage Control.

Under American Canyon’s zoning rules, the city requires a conditional use permit because the majority of the store’s income will come from the sale of alcoholic beverages, according to Brent Cooper, community development director. The 2.6-acre parcel is zoned “Neighborhood Commercial.”

At the Planning Commission meeting on Aug. 27, resident Krishan Rana urged the commission to approve the conditional use permit.

“We all need that store,” Rana said.

The public has until Sept. 8 to appeal the planning commission’s conditional use permit, Cooper said this week.

But as of Wednesday, the city has received no comments, Cooper said.

The 3,000-square-foot barn-style building also houses Parry’s Pizzeria, a restaurant Piero and Evelyn Tropeano have owned and operated independently from Hothi’s business since 2004.