After losing business for the past three years, Atef Henary is bidding adieu to his car wash and Blimpie sandwich shop on Colleyville Boulevard. He is replacing them with a new liquor store, which he hopes will bring in better luck this year.

Henary's proposed liquor store, Mirage Fine Spirits, is Colleyville's most recently approved package liquor store within city limits. Six other liquor stores are already up and running.

Henary expects to open Mirage Fine Spirits by Memorial Day and hopes it will bring foot traffic next door to his existing Colleyville Exxon Mobil gas station and convenience store.

"I thought, 'This is added convenience to my customers to come over here and grab whatever, a gallon of milk, and if they want a bottle of liquor or something, they can,'" he said.

Colleyville voters approved a liquor referendum in May 2010, allowing liquor stores within city limits. Colleyville spokeswoman Mona Gandy said it was a smooth transition.

"We've had no criminal activity associated with liquor stores; I think that was a concern early on," she said. "It is one of those things that we're keeping an eye on. For us, they are another Colleyville business—albeit a highly regulated one."

Since the ordinance went into effect, the city has denied six other proposed Colleyville liquor stores within city limits. Getting approval is not easy, as Henary knows.

"I was denied by the City Council one time in July 2010," he said. "I was denied twice by Planning and Zoning in 2011 between May and September, then I applied again and I got approved by the Planning and Zoning 5-2, then the City Council 6-1."

He revised his proposal each time after studying other approved liquor stores. Henary's approved plan includes demolishing the car wash and Blimpie to build a new liquor store, which will be separated from the convenience store by a wall.

Mirage Fine Spirits brings the total of approved package liquor stores within Colleyville to seven, while Southlake has yet to gain one.

In a public statement, the Southlake City Council urged residents to vote against the liquor referendum.

"As elected members of your City Council, we feel the responsibility to warn you that the blanket authorization of package liquor stores is not in the best interest of Southlake," the letter reads.

Southlake's Farpointe Cellar owner Greg Wilemon and his employees collected enough signatures to add the liquor referendum on the May 2011 election ballot, but the measure did not garner enough support to become law. Wilemon has no plans for a new petition, but he has not ruled it out.

"If we do it, it'll be for the presidential election," Wilemon said.