An auto accessory dealer is looking to set up shop in New Hyde Park after 10 years in Woodside, Queens.
Daven Chang wants to move Broadfeet Motorsport Equipment from Queens Boulevard to 110 Jericho Turnpike, a building Chang bought last August that currently houses a Sleepy’s mattress store.
“My whole family and myself is getting excited to move here,” Chang told the New Hyde Park Village Board Tuesday night.
Broadfeet primarily sells and installs specialized metal bumper guards for cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles, architect Anthony DiProperzio said.
It also makes wholesale and online sales, which comprise about 80 percent of its business, Chang said.
The company plans to take over the 11,960-square-foot warehouse in the back of the building, install two lifts and set up a 1,000-square-foot retail and installation space, DiProperzio said.
“There’s no welding, no torching, no (a)cetalyne tanks, any hazardous material,” he said. “All connections are bolted assemblies.”
All installations would be done by appointment, Chang said.
Broadfeet gets much of its business through referrals from car dealers, he said, who are also major wholesale customers.
Broadfeet would have seven employees, DiProperzio said, including two drivers who will make wholesale deliveries in minivans. UPS or FedEx trucks will pick up online orders and drop off stock using the building’s loading dock, Chang said.
“I think we will open some business opportunities and some job opportunities for the local people as well,” Chang said.
The Jericho Turnpike property would be bigger than Broadfeet’s Woodside location, where the lease is up soon, he said.
Chang lives in Queens close to New Hyde Park and his son takes swimming lessons in the village, he said. He and his wife noticed the building was for sale, he said, and they ended up buying it.
New Hyde Park resident Kurt Langard, who lives near the property, said he was concerned about the business exacerbating parking problems in the area, as the building doesn’t have any off-street parking spaces.
Employees taking seven parking spots on Jericho Turnpike for the length of a business day would violate the village’s four-hour parking limit, he said.
“I’d like you to come and be welcome in the village, but you have to make provisions — either make a deal with the restaurant or somebody who has a parking lot for your vehicles,” Langard said.
Chang said all deliveries would come in through the loading dock, and all installations would be done in the warehouse area.
Because the building is zoned for warehouse use, DiProperzio said, any business operating there would face the same parking issues.
Reid Sakowich of the Inn at New Hyde Park said Broadfeet could use a lot between the loading dock and a nearby home for parking.
While Sakowich said he was a proponent of the business, he was concerned about the business having any flashing lights or other distracting signs facing the nearby inn.
“What I have to look at, or a potential bride that’s paying a lot of money to be in our facility has to look at when she pulls in, it’s a concern of mine,” he said.
Village Trustee Richard Coppola said flashing lights aren’t allowed in the village.
Public Works Superintendent Tom Gannon said the village Architectural Review Board would have to approve any sign permits.
DiProperzio said the business would comply with any conditions the village imposed in its special use permit.
Broadfeet would operate Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with the possibility of expanding its hours with village approval, DiProperzio said.
Chang said Sleepy’s will continue to occupy the 5,400-square-foot storefront as a rental tenant.
The Village Board has forwarded the application to the Nassau County Planning Commission. Trustees will likely make a decision by the end of the month, Coppola said.
