Garvies Point Brewery teams up with RXR

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After RXR Realty prepared its initial plan for development at Garvies Point in 2014, it faced a troublesome problem: what to do with the Marina Support Building. The building was meant to house a business that would complement the proposed marina, but the challenge was finding one that would thrive there, RXR officials said. The structure was tucked away and not visible from Herb Hill Road, and there was no parking. 

To make the location more attractive, RXR has teamed up with the Garvies Point Brewery to move the brewery from Garvies Point Road to the support building in order to create a brewery-restaurant hub. Joe Graziose, RXR’s executive vice president of residential development and construction, said he was excited about the project when the developer presented it to the Glen Cove Planning Board for preliminary review on Dec. 3.

“The plan is to make use of the site and replace the Marina Support Building, which would have probably lied there empty for years to come,” Graziose said.

John Swagerty, senior vice president of development for RXR Realty, re-viewed the plan for the building at the meeting. The 7,700-square-foot site, Swagerty said, would include a parking lot with 34 spaces. The building would be moved farther back from the waterfront to allow for outdoor dining. The move would not only improve the walkway along the Garvies Point perimeter, Swagerty explained, but also would make the building visible from Herb Hill Road. 

The new brick building would be fashioned after the industrial buildings that dotted Garvies Point in the early 1900s. Brewery Co-founder Mark Scoroposki said that the new location would help his business grow, and that he hoped to move into the building by March 2021. Scoroposki added that the new location would be able to house not only the brewery and tasting room, but also a new restaurant and a second-floor venue for special events. 

“This space would be the most optimal to operate the brewery and the hub,” Scoroposki said. “We believe it would be great for a community gathering space.” 

He said he hoped to operate the restaurant seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. With the proposed venue able to fit between 130 and 150 people, Swagerty said, there was likely to be a spillover effect on downtown Glen Cove. Those who frequent breweries, he said, like to go “pub hopping,” moving from one to another. With the downtown within walking distance, he said, a successful Garvies Point Brewery could benefit other businesses as well. 

“We’re hoping to create this nucleus of attraction and see a lot of local businesses benefit,” Swagerty said.  

Planning board members questioned whether 34 parking spots would be enough for the site, but John Scott Grupp, of Notaro Grupp and Associates, an architecture and planning firm, said that they would be. Because it’s near the marina, Grupp added, the brewery attracts boaters and not just drivers, easing use of the lot. 

“Connecticut has many restaurants by the water that do the same,” he said. “We’re comfortable with a parking lot of this size.” 

Graziose said that brewery patrons would also be able to use RXR’s adjacent parking lot and public lots at Garvies Point. Asked about sanitation issues at the site, Graziose told the planning board that the $10 million sewage treatment station at Garvies Point was already meeting the needs of the brewery and had more than enough capacity to handle the addition of the restaurant. He added that RXR would stay on top of the brewery’s cleaning operations, because brewery odors tend to linger if their pipes are not regularly cleaned. 

“While Garvies Point [Brewery] takes care of cleaning its brewery, it’s important for us that any odors are taken care of,” Graziose said.  

After RXR’s presentation, the planning board voted to hold a public hearing on the project at its next meeting in January. It advised RXR to be prepared to answer questions from the public, and asked that the developer provide a before-and-after blueprint for the site to compare it with the 2014 proposal.