Dynasty Sports opened last Friday, filling the storefront at 1612 Sheepshead Bay Road that has sat empty since the neighborhood greasy spoon New Clements Restaurant closed last August.
The store sells sneakers, sportswear and accessories from brand names including Adidas, Reebok, Nike, The North Face and more. To celebrate their grand opening, they’re offering 40 percent off merchandise all week long.
“The people around here are classy people,” said store manager Mike Abd. “They’re looking for something fashionable and we want to give them something they’ll like.”
The store is the most recent expansion of a 15-year-old business, with five other locations around the borough. Two of the other locations use the name MetroSport.
Owners of the commercial development sprouting up at 30 Dooley Street told Sheepshead Bites that they’ve signed leases with a restaurant and beer garden and a “hot yoga” spa.
Benjamin Klein, of Klein Levin Associates, which developed and owns the property, said the building is just a few weeks away from completion, and expects a certificate of occupancy following inspections.
The restaurant and beer garden will take up the basement level of the four-unit property, and will have its own separate entrance on Dooley Street.
The top floor is booked for a Bikram Yoga spa. Also known as hot yoga, stretches are practiced in a room heated to 105°F with a humidity of 40 percent. The top floor of the building is a loft-style unit, with views overlooking the Sheepshead Bay marina.
Klein said two more 2,000 square foot units are still available, both with balconies and waterfront views. The building has attendant parking for 18 cars.
Last July, when we reported that the development on the corner of Ocean Avenue and Avenue Z was nearly complete, a couple of commenters began laying into this project and many others along Ocean Avenue. One called these developments “nondos,” and they all pointed out that the area’s new units appear to have problems selling.
Well, scratch that for the Avenue Z spot.
The mixed-use building that once housed John J. Healey Funeral Home looks like it’s just about booked up, and in less than a year after its completion. All of the residential units up top look occupied, and a handful of businesses have moved into the ground floor.
Most notably, perhaps, is the new 99¢ and Up store. The business is taking up two of the five storefronts, including one on the side of the building (pictured), which wraps around the interior to a front entrance. Next to that, an oral surgeon has put up signage. The remaining storefronts don’t have “For Lease” signs up, and it looks like some work is going on inside, so it’s possible they’re already booked as well.
Not bad for a corner everyone said would be doomed to emptiness.
With 1629 Sheepshead Bay Road nearing completion, the owner said he is in talks to bring a lounge to Sheepshead Bay Road.
A nail salon previously occupied 1629 Sheepshead Bay Rd (Courtesy of Google Maps)
Owner Rovshan Sharifov said he hopes to bring an upscale bar and lounge to the first floor of the three-floor building when construction is complete, which he thinks will be the end of this year. If not a lounge, he said the space will be for retail use.
On the third floor he’ll move the Brooklyn location of his law practice Sharifov & Russell, LLP (his other office is in Hempstead, Long Island). His current practice is down the block at 1661 Sheepshead Bay Road. The second floor will have office space.
According to Department of Buildings records, Sharifov bought the property in 2008 from the Kallas family, which owns several properties on and around Sheepshead Bay Road. The Kallas family bought the land in 2005 for $930,000 and sold it three years later for $940,000. Sharifov said he plans to hold onto the property long-term.
The property was previously occupied by a nail salon.
While the developer at 1508 Avenue Z was prepping their lot for a nine-story building yesterday, these guys were straightening up the long bedraggled property across the street.
Bought in 2005 for almost $7.6 million, this barren piece of crap has sat and done nothing since then. Word is, he’s trying to sell it with plans to build a 14-story building, but we’re told that’s unlikely to ever unfold.
To its credit, the owner – registered as 16 Ave Z LLC – does a fair job keeping the property trimmed and clean. But it’s still blight.
We’re also told efforts to buy the property, or to lease the lot for summery activities like a flea market, have been shot down. The owner apparently wants what can only be described as a shit ton of money.
Sakura II was one of Sheepshead Bay Road’s first sushi joints, if not the first. But as the flashier places moved in, competition got stiff. Sakura’s old-school appeal didn’t reel in the crowds, and so it went belly up a few months ago.
Since then its signage decayed, until the landlord finally tore it down and put some marble up. I guess it looks better, right?
But just to refer back to my headline – I don’t wish all the sushi joints to close down. More power to any local business that can thrive in Sheepshead Bay, even if there are six more of the same within a two block radius.
So, what will take Sakura’s place at 1650 Sheepshead Bay Road?
With two dump trucks and a wood-chipper lined up on Avenue Z, workers began pulling out garbage, weeds, trees and… well, more garbage. This was a property that we’ve previously heard numerous complaints about garbage, poison ivy and other nastiness tangled in the fence.
While taking photos, I ran into property owner George Krasanakis. (I didn’t have a pen or paper, so our discussion is solely from memory.) He said that, regardless of one’s opinion on the development, positive impacts need to be highlighted, and the environmental cleanup is an achievement worth recognizing.
“Have you ever seen that stuff?” he said. “There’s garbage, waste, rats, raccoons – all kinds of junk. Nobody can say getting rid of this is a bad thing.”
Earlier today we reported about Community Board 15′s rejection of a special permit application to reduce the number of required spaces at 1501 and 1401 Sheepshead Bay Road. During the meeting, the architect flashed these artist renderings of the 1501 Sheepshead Bay Road location. The left two images are the view from Avenue Z, while the right picutre is the view from Sheepshead Bay Road.
As we’ve reported, the Avenue Z side is the entrance and exit to the garage. The buildings next door on Avenue Z (not pictured) are one story, and on Sheepshead Bay Road they’re two stories.
We’re not quite sure how true to scale the renderings are. The clearance between the subway tracks and the building is about 12 feet, according to the developer. Here’s a photo of that space now – the property is only the fenced in area:
Residents, board members and local politicians chewed out a developer’s plans to construct a nine-story, 115 foot tall building wedged between Sheepshead Bay Road and Avenue Z at this week’s meeting, amidst concerns about parking, traffic and safety.
The board voted unanimously to turn down a request for special permits to reduce the amount of parking required for two buildings by the same owner. The special permits sought to combine the parking for both buildings (1401 Sheepshead Bay Road and 1501 Sheepshead Bay Road), and reduce the number of required spaces by 40 percent.
But the height, location and car capacity of the new building, as well as the developer’s own statements to the Board of Standards and Appeals, came under attack during the Tuesday night meeting.
“When we bring up downzoning in this area, this is the kind of project we’re talking about,” said a representative for Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz.
This fence is the site of the proposed Avenue Z garage. The owner says there is more than 12 feet of space.
Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz is calling for a traffic study of the streets around the nine-story office building proposed for 1501 Sheepshead Bay Road in advance of a Community Board 15 meeting voting on the plans. We first told you about the building last week, which is raising questions as they seek to reduce required parking, and the parking they do plan has some interesting quirks. In his press release, the Assemblyman offers some pretty harsh words for the developer, saying there’s no room for a building of its scale, and questions the developer’s veracity.
Here’s the release:
Assemblyman Cymbrowitz has called on the NYC Department of Transportation to conduct a comprehensive traffic study before a developer is allowed to break ground on a nine story multi-use building, at 1501 Sheepshead Bay Road, that would stretch from Sheepshead Bay Road to Avenue Z, next to the subway tracks. While the building may be built as of right under zoning rules, 178 off street parking spaces are required. The developer plans to appeal to Community Board 15, at its May 25th meeting, for a special permit that would reduce the required number of parking spaces to 101.
“There’s literally no room on Sheepshead Bay Road for this building when you consider the congestion that it will generate. This area is already clogged with three bus lines, trucks making deliveries to the stores along Sheepshead Bay Road, shoppers looking for parking spaces and livery cabs jockeying for fares. Adding hundreds of cars to this mix, plus ambulettes and livery cabs dropping off and picking up patients and this street scene will become one of perpetual gridlock,” Cymbrowitz stated.
