Steven Cymbrowitz, Steve Barrison, Kevin Jeffrey at this afternoon’s announcement.
The city will kick off the final phase of an Emmons Avenue beautification project in the spring, capping off a 10-year rehabilitation of Sheepshead Bay’s waterfront, Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz announced at a press conference today.
Cymbrowitz was joined by Parks Department Brooklyn Commissioner Kevin Jeffrey, Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo, 46th District Leader Mike Geller, Bay Improvement Group President Steve Barrison and Parks Department’s Brooklyn Chief of Staff Martin Maher on Emmons Avenue and Sheepshead Bay Road this afternoon, celebrating the conclusion of a design study that will kick off the construction.
“If you look [at Emmons Avenue west of Ocean Avenue] the area is quite different than the rest of Emmons Avenue. There are several trees, some sidewalk, but that’s about it,” Cymbrowitz said. With construction expected to begin in the spring of 2013, the western portion of the strip will match the east, an area he says is “a lot more relaxing. It’s a terrific area to just sit.”
This latest phase of the project, affecting the water side of Emmons Avenue from Ocean Avenue to East 14th Street, will see improvements including:
- repaired sidewalks
- covered trash bins
- new trees, with granite block pavement in enlarged tree pits
- new curb cuts
- fresh paint on the Bay’s railing
- blue concrete and matching artistic design elements previously installed near the piers, from Ocean Avenue to East 27th Street
- 1964 World’s Fair-style benches
The project will cost $460,000, with all funding provided by a 2008 MultiModal allocation by Cymbrowitz; MultiModal funding may only be used for transportation-related projects.
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Contractors demolished the 38-year-old garage at 1515 Avenue Z this morning, eliminating the last remaining marker of the mechanic and gas station that formerly occupied the East 16th Street corner.
The owners, October Sky LLC, purchased the property at auction for $4.75 million last year, and told Sheepshead Bites in February they’d be turning it into a parking area. In the last few weeks, contractors put down gravel, painted parking lines, and opened up the lot for monthly parking tenants.
The added parking spaces are not only a boon to commuters and Sheepshead Bay Road’s parking starved businesses, but also for October Sky. It could lead to the eventual legalization of a nearby development at 1401 Avenue Z, which was constructed without the necessary number of parking spots. The developer previously filed plans to build a nine story mixed-use building across the street at 1508 Avenue Z (a.k.a. 1501(c) Sheepshead Bay Road), filling it with offices and a 101-car parking garage, which October Sky hoped to split between the new building and the East 14th Street one, bringing it within the boundaries of the law.
Those plans were nixed, however, after local leaders blasted it, saying that it would create a traffic nightmare to have a valet parking garage of that size on congested Avenue Z.
More parking in the area will undoubtedly be welcomed by locals. But I, for one, really miss filling up my bicycle tires for free at the old station as a kid. But those days – days of free air and gas stations in Sheepshead Bay – are long gone.
Thanks to Andrea Coyle for the tip!
A photo from the November 8 Brighton Beach building collapse.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration slapped SP&K Construction with more than $77,000 in fines for skirting regulations in building a Brighton Beach structure, which collapsed in November killing one and injuring four others.
The agency served the Midwood-based company with 11 safety violations yesterday, saying the company knowingly failed to ensure the building was stable before sending workers in to pour concrete.
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The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Source: Flickr / Howard N2GOT (Howard Brier)
There is an old parable about the Holocaust. With a little tweaking, it translates quite well to the situation we face at Jamaica Bay today:
First they came for the starlings,
and I didn’t speak out because I needed a flight.
Then they came for the geese,
and I didn’t speak out because I needed a flight.
Then they came for the cormorants,
and I didn’t speak out because I needed a flight.
Then they came to shut down the wildlife refuge,
and why not, since there was nothing left anyway.
Well, folks, the bird Holocaust is coming to Jamaica Bay.
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Owners of the three-story development at 1810 Voorhies Avenue have wrapped up construction and are finalizing its roster of tenants, the building’s manager told Sheepshead Bites.
The building is so far slated to house a furniture store and doctor’s office on the first floor, and a day care on the second floor. The third floor is still in negotiations, with the day care potentially occupying that as well, according to the manager, David Fernandez.
Community Board 15 voted in February 2011 to reject the building’s developer application to permit the reduction in required parking for an ambulatory or diagnostic treatment facility. The board was urged on by Councilman Michael Nelson, who argued that a furniture store on Voorhies Avenue with no off-street docking area for trucks would lead to more congestion on the already nightmarish roadway.
The Board of Standards and Appeals, which has final say over the application, has not yet voted on the project.
Source: Google Maps
In an effort to offload defunct properties and reduce overhead, the MTA has issued a Request for Proposals from developers to rehabilitate and put to use seven defunct properties around the city – including an old electrical substation in Midwood.
Located at 851 East 15th Street, near Avenue I, the 7,920 square foot property is located mid-block, just before the footbridge spanning the open cut railroad line that crosses Brooklyn. It abuts the tracks for the B/Q Brighton line, and has been a haven for graffiti and illegal dumping for years.
Now that property, located in an R5 zoning district, is hitting the market – likely for a residential development.
The RFP comes after a year of reviewing the MTA’s real estate assets in an effort to increase revenue and reduce costs.
“Given the current financial picture facing the MTA, we have an imperative. We must do anything and everything we can to raise revenue and reduce costs in order to minimize the need to turn to fares, tolls and taxes,” said MTA Chairman Joseph J. Lhota. “Our real estate department is pursuing that imperative by thoroughly reviewing our real estate holdings and identifying properties that we could potentially offer for sale or lease. Finding properties that we own but don’t need in order to operate service is not an easy task. In fact, most of the properties that fell into that category have been sold off long ago by our public and private predecessors.”
The MTA and New York City Economic Development Corporation will accept proposals for about a year, with four deadlines beginning on June 29. Details can be found on the EDC’s website.
The other properties up for development are:
- 19 East Houston Street in SoHo.
- Gun Hill Road and I-95.
- 351 East 139th Street in Mott Haven, Bronx.
- 707 East 211th Street in Williamsbridge, Bronx.
- 379 Van Sinderen Avenue, East New York.
- 103-54 99th Street in Ozone Park, Queens.
If not a residential development, what would you like to see in that location?
Photo by Arthur Borko
Defying the never-ending rumor that an IHOP is destined for the Sheepshead Bay area, the former site of Chinar, a.k.a. the former site of Jahn’s, a.k.a. the former site of The Flame… is now the present site of a parking lot for Key Food customers.
Key Food shoppers, count your blessings.
The former site of Chinar at 3110 Avenue U, which once also housed Jahn’s Ice Cream and The Flame, was torn down this week.
Chinar vacated the site in mid-2010, when they moved to a new location at 2775 Coney Island Avenue. It has been empty since then.
There are no plans listed on the Department of Buildings website for a new structure on the property, currently owned by CGB Principals Realty Associates.
GerritsenBeach.net also reported on the demolition.
Neighbors of the long-neglected lot at 1515 Avenue Z, formerly occupied by a gas station and mechanic, have noticed a lot of work going on in the last two weeks, as contractors cleared out the overgrowth and garbage. That’s because the property is now in new hands, and the owner – a developer with several properties in the area – is moving forward with plans to add parking.
It’s not the first time the owner has tried to add parking in the area; last time community leaders squashed the plans. Find out more…
The current structure, with an overlay of the proposed designs. Scale is approximate.
Community Board 15 voted overwhelmingly to approve a planned Manhattan Beach McMansion on the site of the rectory of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, despite objections from a local community group.
The request for a special permit to enlarge the current building by more than three times its current size and nearly double the size allowed by law came before the board during their Tuesday night meeting. The board voted 26 in favor and five against (with one abstention) to approve major modifications to the 92-year-old structure.
That approval came despite opposition from the Manhattan Beach Community Group, who said the lawyer’s claims about the building were based on faulty data.
“The measurements that they’re using for this house is flawed. The whole procedure is flawed. He shouldn’t be allowed to build that house,” said MBCG President Ira Zalcman.
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