Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz today gave his blessing for a planned $150 million massive shopping center on the Bensonhurst waterfront to be anchored by a BJ’s Wholesale Club.
But the borough president wants developer Joe Sitt to include a waterfront-destination restaurant with the 214,000-square-foot retail complex slated for a vacant bus depot at Shore Parkway and 24th Avenue.
“Given Brooklyn’s population, the borough is truly lacking when it comes to having waterfront dining opportunities,” wrote Markowitz in a June 9 letter to Sitt. “There are really only a handful of opportunities that I believe can entice destination restaurants such as Legal Seafood and Grand Lux Café to open the first venue in Brooklyn.
“This is the perfect site. Having such a dining opportunity would benefit the publicly accessible area by bringing more people to enjoy this waterfront, while the landscaping of the open space would provide the perfect foreground to the marvelous harbor vistas extending from Sea Gate to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.”
A source, however, said the addition of a restaurant is unlikely. The entire project is going through the city’s time-consuming land-use review process for a zoning change and Sitt, who has waited four years to finally gain momentum at City Hall for the plan, would have to agree to restart the process all over to include an eatery – potentially delaying the plan at least another seven months.
A spokesman for Sitt’s firm Thor Equities said the firm “is focused on gaining all land use approvals for the Brooklyn Bay Center, so we can begin construction and the process of bringing hundreds of jobs into the borough of Brooklyn. We very much appreciate the borough president’s comments and look forward to working with his office to ensure this development is a benefit to the community and all of Brooklyn.”
The project will ultimately be decided by the City Council with Markowitz’s recommendations holding some weight.
The project would also provide 690 parking spaces and a 2.4-acre esplanade providing key waterfront access for the community. BJ’s alone is expected to bring 250 new jobs.
The Bensonhurst project recently received a key endorsement from Community Board 11, which recommended Sitt and the city include on-site recreational opportunities like kayaking and fishing.
