BENSONHURST'S PREMIER NEWS BLOG

Source: w00kie via Flickr

While we didn’t plan on doing another Coney Island story today, with summer on its way and Coney Island still in a transitional period, there’s simply an above average amount of chatter out there. With so many changes on the horizon, we want to give Bensonhurst Bean’s readers a heads up on what to expect at the beach this summer.

Coney Island developer Joe Sitt – who has become very unpopular with preservationists in recent years – says the suburban mall-like building erected by his firm Thor Equities on the Stillwell Avenue site of an historic structure he had demolished is only temporary, and is just one of many changes (shudder) in store for the People’s Playground. Continue Reading »

Rendering of 1752 Shore Parkway (from GlobeSt.com)

Joe Sitt’s proposed Bay Center got another green light last Thursday, when the City Council voted to approve the project.

Bensonhurst Bean had written about the the development – slated for 1752 Shore Parkway – in June, including concerns about increased automobile traffic, as well as a decrease in foot traffic on our area’s main streets, which lay further inland.

According to Sitt, the shopping center – whose main retail space would be occupied by a BJ’s Wholesale Club – will include a 2.4 acre waterfront esplanade, as well as provide around 250 high paying temporary construction jobs, plus more permanent, albeit less lucrative, retail positions once it opens .

From real estate website GlobeSt.com:

“We are thrilled,” says Joseph J. Sitt, CEO of Thor Equities, who expects construction to begin by the end of the year. “This significant development along the Brooklyn waterfront will immediately create much needed well-paying jobs and provide low-cast goods to residents currently struggling in a tough economy,” he adds, noting that the company will launch a local hiring initiative for residents of the community. It is expected to create 250 unionized trade, construction and planning jobs.

In an acknowledgement of concerns over increased congestion on Bay Parkway and on the currently two-lane Shore Parkway, Assemblyman Peter Abbate is currently trying to secure state funding for traffic mitigation. Possible steps to calm car traffic include relocating the Belt Parkway’s Bay Parkway exit east of its current location.

State Assemblyman Peter Abbate represents Assembly District 49, which includes Bensonhurst, Bath Beach and Dyker Heights

City Councilman Domenic Recchia represents Council District 47, which includes Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Gravesend, as well as part of Bensonhurst. He also serves as Chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee.

A Legal Sea Foods Restaurant in Boston (by nlnnet via flickr)

Borough President Marty Markowitz has released his official recommendations to the City Planning Commission concerning Joe Sitt’s Bay Center.

Chief among Markowitz’s recommendations, such as suggestions for addressing traffic concerns, was the desire for waterfront dining to come to the Bay Center.

“Given Brooklyn’s population, the borough is truly lacking when it comes to having waterfront dining opportunities,” wrote BP Markowitz in a June 9, 2011, letter to Joseph Sitt of Thor Equities. “There are really only a handful of opportunities that I believe can entice destination restaurants such as Legal Seafood (sic) and Grand Lux Café to open the first venue in Brooklyn. This is the perfect site. Having such a dining opportunity would benefit the publicly accessible area by bringing more people to enjoy this waterfront, while the landscaping of the open space would provide the perfect foreground to the marvelous harbor vistas extending from Sea Gate to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.”

While public utilization of the waterfront is repeatedly brought up in the documents released by the Borough President, the exact words ‘public parkland’ was not.

As we had mentioned in our previous story, public amenities mentioned at CB 11′s meeting, such as an Eco Dock, were not mandatory for the down-zoning motion’s approval.

The proposed site at 1752 Shore Parkway (from propertyshark.com)

While local groups continue to fight tooth and nail in order to prevent Walmart from opening up a store in New York City, another big box chain isn’t running into any trouble at all in Bensonhurst.

Joe Sitt’s Thor Shore Parkway Developers, LLC has applied for a change in zoning in order to build a two-story 214,000-square-foot retail space near Caesar’s Bay Shopping Center. The four-unit commercial project, to occupy 1752 Shore Parkway (at Bay 38th Street), is being called Brooklyn Bay Center, and the ground floor is  expected to house a BJ’s Wholesale Club, with the three remaining retail units on the second flood floor.

There is a land use hearing on the proposal scheduled for today at 5:00 p.m. in Borough Hall in Downtown Brooklyn. Continue Reading »