By Joseph Kellard
The Town of Hempstead Zoning Board of Appeals approved an application by CVS to build a store at that site, on Long Beach Road and Mott Street. While representatives of the chain pharmacy said they have yet to decide on an exact timetable for construction, they may break ground by year¹s end.
³We¹re actually not due to begin work there until later this year, at the earliest, or by early 2008,² said Michael DeAngelis, a CVS spokesman.
On March 28 the zoning board approved CVS¹s application with the condition that its stand-alone store be no larger than 11,900 square feet ‹ 1,000 less than the company had proposed for the 1.4-acre parcel.
³The building will be about 11,800 [square feet],² DeAngelis said, adding that it would be similar in size to the CVS store the company will close at the Sands Shopping Center across the street.
The new store will feature two drive-throughs, strictly for dropping off and picking up prescription medication, and two driveways, one at the existing curb cut at the Long Beach Road and Mott Street intersection, which sports a traffic light, and another at the north end of the site replacing an existing strip of stores that includes H & R Block, Century 21 Mac Levitt and Isis Nail World.
Gus Merlotos, Sr., who has owned the property of East Bay Diner and the adjacent stores since the late 1960s, said that he is leasing them to CVS because he believes the pharmacy is better than a diner for both him and the neighborhood.
³Sometimes in life you have to make a decision, and it was time to get out,² Merlotos said.
Meanwhile, the owner of a business that has already relocated from the strip of stores neighboring the diner said that he is waiting for Merlotos to compensate him.
³He still has to buy me out,² said Joseph Taravella, owner of J & M Haircutters. ³If the deal went through already, I should be getting the $50,000 that he agreed to pay me.²
After 18 years of cutting hair in his shop, Taravella moved about a half-mile north on Long Beach Road after he learned late last year that Merlotos was going to lease the property to CVS. Taravella signed a lease and moved into his new store about three months ago, but he still pays rent on his former, vacant store.
³In my business you have to let customers know about six months ahead of time in order to get all of them back,² Taravella said. ³I¹ve been telling [Merlotos] I need my money because I¹m paying two rents.²
³The tenants will all be compensated,² Merlotos said.
Another former business at his strip of stores, Fantasia Travel, moved to Lawson Boulevard in March 2006, before Merlotos announced that he would lease to CVS. ³He knew it was coming because he did let us out of the lease very easily,² said Rina, a travel agent at Fantasia.
An employee of East Bay said that the diner¹s owner, identified only as Moe, has still not told his employees that the diner will close. ³He never told us a thing,² she said. Moe did not return a phone call for comment, and Mac Levitt of Century 21 was unavailable for comment last week.
At the Jan. 17 zoning board hearing, no one spoke in opposition to CVS¹s application to replace the diner and store, which border a condominium complex on Alhambra Drive. Among the board¹s other conditions for CVS are that it erect fencing along its border, and that its lights shine strictly on its property.
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
