Photos: Spirits of Alaska liquor store closes

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Spirits of Alaska owner Bridget Thompson waits for employees to leave before locking up the liquor store in Fairview on Wednesday, April 29, 2015, after the Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board voted not to renew the store's license to sell alcohol. Thompson and her husband and attorney Darryl Thompson plan to appeal the decision.

The embattled Spirits of Alaska liquor store in Anchorage's Fairview neighborhood is closed, effectively immediately, after the Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board voted Wednesday not to renew the store's license to sell alcohol.

The decision comes after the Anchorage Assembly earlier this month took the highly unusual step of protesting the liquor license renewal. It caps a years-long effort by the Fairview Community Council to change or rid the neighborhood of a store it viewed as a nexus of criminal activity and public inebriation.

On Wednesday, the ABC Board was asked to determine whether the city's formal protest of the license renewal on April 14 was "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable."

READ MORE: ABC Board votes not to renew license of embattled Anchorage liquor store