Anthony Reid and Rasheen Henry (above) are psyched about the prospect of a Wendy’s coming to this vacant corner of Winthrop and Whalley avenues. Merchants and adult neighbors have a different vision of how Whalley should develop. They’re fighting chains like Wendy’s. And the city might seize the property before Wendy’s can serve a burger.
The lot is owned by absentee slumlords — er, Queens, N.Y., investors — operating under a limited liability corporation called Mast Equities. They used to have a building on that lot. They let it run down so badly that the city condemned and razed it. Two years later they still haven’t paid the city for the demolition, so the city has a $165,000 lien on the property.
Meanwhile, the owners are looking to rent the property to a national chain. They’re in talks with two retail chains, according to their local realtor, Mike Gordon. One of those chains is Wendy’s. Gordon wouldn’t name the other. Two “local development types” have also inquired about buying the property, but a sale probably won’t happen because the owners are asking too high a price, Gordon said.
The prospect of a Wendy’s in the ‘hood sent 16-year-old Reid and 18-year-old Henry dancing and riffing with glee.
“There won’t be no more McDonald’s or Burger King” if Wendy’s comes, Reid proclaimed. “Cheeseburgers with bacon! If I get a job there, I’m all set. The entire Tre will be be there.”
Another neighbor, Shyla Jenkins (in photo), who’s 19, was less enthusiastic. “It’s gonna be too busy,” she said. “There’s already a lot of traffic here.”
Jenkins’ worries are echoed — and magnified — by members of the Whalley-Edgewood-Beaver Hill Management team. They sent a letter Nov. 16 to the City Plan Department urging the city to pass, quickly, a zoning amendment that would bar fast food places — not to mention “poultry markets with slaughtering… pawn shops… auto racing clubs… drive-in services … motels … dance halls, nightclubs, bars… tattoo parlors… adult book & video, sex shops…. any new liquor stores… any ‘dollar stores’ … more drugstores… temporary stores such as tax preparation stores that only open seasonally.”
In other words, no more of what already dominates much of Whalley Avenue.
The letter was signed by management team members Francine Harcourt Caplan, Anna Bartow, and Lori Hillson (the group president). “What kind of stores, businesses, and residences do we want and hope to get?” the letter asked. The answer: “Bakeries, Movie Theatre, Hardware Store (bigger), Clothing stores, boutiques, Music and Video Stores, Fruit & Vegetable store, Delis, Shoe repair, Shoe store, Garden shop, Florists, Art/Craft Galleries, Children and Baby good store, Ice Cream shop, Fitness studio (yoga, pilates, etc.), Sit-down restaurants: American, ethnic (Indian, Thai, etc.), Chocolate sweet shop.”
The team has been working for years on the zoning amendment. Whether it will pass before the owners sell the property or lease it to a chain remains to be seen. The Board of Aldermen won’t vote on the amendment until at least January.
Meanwhile, City Hall, prodded by indefatigable neighborhood Liveable City Initiative (LCI) worker Elaine Braffman, is moving to foreclose on the property, according to Frank D’Amore. D’Amore is deputy director of LCI’s property division. “We’ve extended them time to the point it’s ridiculous,” D’Amore said. But “we have no control over who they [might] sell it to.”
Sheila Masterson, executive director of the Whalley Special Services District, would like to see the neighborhood “build on the success of Edge of the Woods. That little conclave is the place to connect with people. Sylvan Cleaners on Friday afternoon is the place to run into your buddies. The same with Edge of the Woods” and Stella’s European Cafe across the street. “We have enough fast food.”
Masterson hasn’t met with success trying to communicate these desires to the out-of-town owners of the lot at Winthrop and Whalley. “They’re very hard to get ahold of, and they don’t return calls,” she said.
Indeed, their representatives failed to return calls for this story. Gordon, their realtor, said he had nothing to do with the investors’ past troubles with the city over the condition of the prior building and the current lien.