By Doug Miller
The application calls for a one-story building with a footprint of 9,492 square feet and an office mezzanine of 4,200 square feet. The proposal offers 20 parking spaces, although the zoning code requires a building that size to offer 23 spaces.
The proposed building height, 28 feet 6 inches, exceeds the allowable height in that zone, which is 25 feet.
The building's proposed location puts it in a residential zone along Long Beach Boulevard, although the space's current occupant, Island Mobile, is also commercial. Under the agreement, Walgreens would execute a ground lease with the current owner, Nick Capriotti.
If approved, Walgreens would become the city's 10th pharmacy, joining the two Kings locations, CVS, Eckerd, Genovese, the Waldbaums pharmacy, Bi-Wise, Long Beach Chemists and Surfside Chemists. There is also Gelo's Point Pharmacy in Point Lookout. But an attorney for Walgreens, Wayne Edwards, said too much competition is not the problem.
The city's new planning consultants, Saccardi & Schiff, have singled out the Long Beach Boulevard corridor where the Walgreens would be built as an eyesore in serious need of overhaul. Since it is one of three entry points to the city but is dominated by automotive-based businesses, the consultants have said the city should strive to recruit more attractive and diverse businesses to the area.
"Walgreens is looking to make a big investment in the city," said Edwards, a partner in the East Meadow firm of Certilman, Balin. "[This location is] obviously unattractive. Before its current use, it was Fleishman's auto sales, where my grandfather used to buy Lincoln Continentals in the 1950s. This is going to be a beautiful, modern building with a national tenant. It can only be an improvement."
The city's other pharmacies are expected to vigorously fight the application. "We don't want them here," said Jay Kirshner, the owner of Kings Pharmacy. "The last thing we need is another pharmacy."
For other merchants, the principal being violated by the application is not the type of the store proposed, but the scope. P.J. Whelan, owner of the Lindell Deli on East Park Avenue, wrote in a letter published in this issue of the Herald, "The mom-and-pop stores are made up of hard-working, community-focused people, many of whom live here. They contribute to local events [and] local teams. They pay their share of real estate taxes. Their business is derived from mostly local sales on this barrier beach island. For years they have gone on, surviving the onslaught of box retailers whose shareholder power thinks nothing of the mom-and-pops."
The zoning board will also hear a resubmitted application by Brian Braddish, owner of the Tiki Bar in the West End, to expand his business outward and upward. The board last heard from the Tiki Bar in May, when it presented an application to add a second floor to the building and to enclose the backyard area for dining. A proposal to add rooftop dining has been scrapped.
At the May meeting, no fewer than a dozen angry West End neighbors protested the application, which was withdrawn before a vote could be taken. The West End Neighbors Association claimed to have a petition signed by 400 people protesting the expansion.
But Braddish said, "What I want to do with this place is a win-win situation for both myself and the community."
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