The Mineola board of trustees at its meeting last week cleared the way to the Winston Manor residential project, cleared the way for a Chipotle restaurant to open next spring and declined to consider a special permit to Great Neck Games until the company complies with terms stipulated in a prior application.
The village board voted unanimously to let the Winston Manor project proceed without further evaluation of its environmental impact on the neighborhood where it is to be built on Jericho Turnpike across from the county executive building. The board’s declaration, required by the State Environmental Quality Review Act, opens the door to let construction of the seven-story multiple-unit rental complex begin.
Village board attorney John Spellman said he anticipated that the board would give a final green light for revised plans for the Winston at next week’s board meeting.
“I expect they’ll act on it,” Spellman said.
This will be welcome news to Polimeni International, the developer that agreed to shift its plans from constructing a condominium on the site to making it a rental property, avoiding interference from neighboring Garden City. Since the project is within 300 feet of the Garden City border, the village of Garden City would have been entitled to offer input on a condominium.
Polimeni told the board he was changing the nature of the project to primarily circumvent opposition of Garden City officials, who had privately told Mineola officials they wanted to put the kibosh on the condo. Polimeni also said current economic conditions also prompted him to shift to a rental project.
Winston Manor is the latest project intended to help transform Mineola’s downtown area, by increasing the number residents in area and, thereby, offering more potential customers for local businesses. The Winston rental configuration will contain 275 units – down from the 285 condo units originally planned – including 165 one-bedroom apartments and 110 two-bedroom units.
A new location for the Chipotle Mexican Grill Restaurant chain will likely open this spring in the shopping center in the northeast quadrant of the intersection at Jericho Turnpike and Herricks Road.
Thomas Pantelis, a lawyer representing Chipotle, said there would be no additional construction needed for the restaurant franchise to open the 2,800-square-foot eatery in close proximity to Panera and Maxell’s in the same shopping center.
Laurie Madsen, real estate manage for Chipotle. said the peak traffic hours at the location would likely be noon to 2 p.m., when the chain projects handling 100 customers per hour, with a take-out dinner rush between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. drawing 60 customers per hour.
“We do a lot of our business at lunch time,” Madsen said.
Pantelis said a brick facade will be maintained on the building housing the restaurant.
Trustee Thomas Kennedy offered an impromptu testimonial to the quality of the food at several Chipotle’s in the neighborhood where he works in lower Manhattan, noting they often have long lines at lunch time. “It’s worth the wait,” he said.
Village of Mineola Mayor Jack Martins chided landlord Michael Korff about a non-functioning clock in a clock tower he had previously agreed to put in the shopping center.
“The clock was supposed to work. We would appreciate some cooperation in getting the clock to work,” Martins said.
Martins suggested giving Chipotle a conditional approval, based on stipulations on garbage storage and deliveries, and the board voted unanimously to do so.
Martins was visibly impatient with representatives of Great Neck Games, the center’s owners who came to the board seeking a special permit to install fans, replace grass medians around the building with sidewalks and put up a PVC fence to replace an existing chain link fence.
Martins told Great Neck Games principal Hamid Delafraz that the fence was supposed to have been replaced when the board approved a building expansion for the company two years ago, and noted a receiving dock on Jericho Turnpike the company had agreed to shutter was still operating. A temporary certificate of occupancy had been issued by the village more recently, although those conditions, and others, had apparently been ignored.
“As we stand here today, the building extension is in place and none of the conditions have been met,” Martins said. “If I understand correctly, you’re coming back to negotiate conditions for things that you were supposed to do already.”
Another principal of the company, Victor Hatami, claimed the company just received a variance from the fire marshal to do some of the stipulated work three weeks ago, and said he had been coming to Village Hall frequently to sort out the situation.
But village building department superintendent Daniel Whalen told Martins that Hatami had come in to complain about the work he was required to do under terms of the extension approval and the Certificate of Occupancy. Whalen recommended that the village not accede to any further requests from Great Neck Games “until the covenants have been met.”
As Delafraz tried to interject, Martins ignored him, and asked for a motion that no further action be taken on Great Neck Games’ application until the involvement of the fire marshal could be verified and prior conditions set by the board be met.
“This matter is adjourned,” Martins said. “The next step of the board is to revoke the temporary CO.”
