By: Chris Munzing
The City Council voted Tuesday night to table the proposed final resolution for the Superblock development, opting to put the matter before one more public hearing. That hearing, scheduled to take place before the March 1 City Council meeting, should be a rowdy affair. A vote is scheduled to be held following the hearing.
The first resolution, if approved, will accept the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act's findings that the development will not have a significant environmental impact. The second will authorize the city manager to execute an amendment to the contract between the city and the developer, Pilevsky's Phillips International.
The council voted unanimously to table the two resolutions after concerns were raised by residents and councilmen Lenny Remo and Denis Kelly that the public had not been given adequate time to discuss the project, as promised in the past. "We don't feel comfortable voting on this if you don't feel comfortable," City Council President Jim Hennessy said at the beginning of the meeting. "This is going to influence us and our families for years and years to come. This will change the face of our city."
Hennessy added that the two-week delay in the vote has no bearing on the city's support for the proposed development.
The contract calls for an increase in the price paid to the city by Phillips International for the land, as well as a reduction in the number of condominium/hotel towers on the property from three to two.
The city still needs to finalize the acquisition of parcels of the land from six separate landowners before it can sell the land to Phillips. City Manager Charles Theofan said he expected those acquisitions to be finalized within four or five months, and for construction to begin shortly after that.
The previous contract, authorized by the City Council in November 2001, called for Phillips International to pay the city $11 million for the land. The amended contract requires Phillips to pay the city whatever the city pays for the land. Theofan said that recent appraisals have put the value of the Superblock land at about $19 million. "The city is not doing this to make money," Theofan said. "But we will not be out of pocket."
The development's two towers will be 10 stories tall, and contain 250 condominium units and 140 hotel rooms. One tower will have both condos and hotel rooms, Theofan said. A seven-story hotel tower was removed from the plan. The proposed development will have 695 parking spaces, 75 more than required by law.
The hotel rooms will not be the traditional style, said Scott Furman, an attorney representing the developers. They will be condo units that can be purchased and then rented out. Furman said that at the outset, all 140 hotel units will be owned by the developer.
"We have been successful in taking a project that was an example of overdevelopment ... and making it good for the community," Hennessy said. "We're revitalizing an area that needs revitalization."
Hennessy said that in addition to the removal of the seven-story tower, a three-story wall that was to surround the property has also been scrapped. "It's not going to be like a compound, like it was originally," he said. "It's much more open and dedicated to open space. It's going to be very inviting to the people in Long Beach."
Many public parking spaces will be eliminated from the area, however, since the proposed development would eliminate the section of Shore Road that cut through the land. Shore Road would extend east from Long Beach Boulevard, not Riverside Boulevard.
Theofan could not provide estimates of how much the city would collect in building fees and taxes.
He said that construction would bring some inconveniences, but added that there shouldn't be any major problems for people looking to enjoy the boardwalk and the beach. "I'm sure there will be some disruption, but we have no intention of closing the boardwalk," Theofan said. "The construction will be done with a minimum of disruption."
He added that the development features several new restaurants and catering facilities right on the boardwalk, similar to the Turquoise complex.
The proposed development has never been without opposition. Jim Brown, a Long Beach resident and the founder of Citizens to Save the Superblock, said that he and his group have lobbied the city to turn the property into a park. "We feel it's bad for the city," Brown said. "It'll cause extra traffic and congestion down there, and it's just more condos. It's the loss of an opportunity for open space that affects me more than anything else. It's unfortunate that the developer's profit is determining what's happening."
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