LEARN AND GROW WITH
HEBREW LANGUAGE
ACADEMY!
From personalized math and
English, to learning a new language,
we provide your child with a wellrounded
academic experience that
will set them on a path to success.
Apply for K–6 at
HebrewPublic.org/Apply
Apply by: 4/1 | Lottery date: 4/9
HLA - 2186 Mill Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11234
HLA2 - 1870 Stillwell Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11223
admissions@hebrewpublic.org | 646-916-0055
COURIER L 12 IFE, MARCH 22–28, 2019 B
THEATER
Lutfy and the commission’s eight
other present members unanimously
voted in favor of the proposed changes
to the plan, which developer Pye Property’s
chosen architects fi rst presented
to the preservationists back in January,
when the panel told the builder to
go back to the drawing board and include
exterior elements that better recall
the site’s storied history.
The revisions include the installation
of an 82-square-foot, metal “Shore
Hotel” sign illuminated with exposed
bulbs — instead of the originally proposed
32-and-a-half-foot, red fabric
banner — and the partial reconstruction
of the fi re-escape staircase that
currently hangs outside the shorter,
four-story side of the split-level site,
which used to house the former theater.
The partial staircase the designers
will restore will not be operational,
but rather serve as an element of continuity
amid the other changes to the
building at Surf and Stillwell avenues,
according to Pye Property’s chosen architect.
“It’s more art than it is function —
it’s going to act as a relic for what used
to exist on the building,” said Randolph
Gerner.
The updated proposal also included
other new details that the preservationists
did not specifi cally request,
including an illuminated sign for the
forthcoming spa, replacing brickwork
on the theater’s facade, and installing
exposed-bulb lighting around the
building’s base.
Other proposals in the developer’s
original plan for the site’s exterior —
including fl attening the former theater’s
rooftop to make way for an outdoor
terrace and pool; restoring the
original limestone base of the complex’s
taller, seven-story structure;
and replacing that portion’s windows,
parts of its decaying brick façade, and
its decrepit top-fl oor balcony — remained
unchanged.
A Pye Property bigwig praised the
GRASHORN
as an apartment and a workshop, Denson
said.
But the building has been vacant
for more than a decade, according
to the historian, who said it has remained
empty since developer Joe Sitt,
the founder of real-estate fi rm Thor
Equities, purchased it for $1.4 million
in 2005 .
Sitt owned the most property in
the neighborhood until he sold a large
portfolio of his Coney Island holdings
to the city’s Economic Development
Corporation for $95.6 million in 2009,
when the Council passed the neighborhood’s
sweeping rezoning, according
to a Real Deal report .
Last fall, Sitt attempted to shed
THEY’RE SHORE: A developer will proceed
with renovating Coney Island’s landmarked
Shore Theater building after city preservationists
approved its reworked scheme,
which now incorporates more details that
honor the storied site’s original exterior.
File photo by Elizabeth Graham
even more of his local land when he
put 21 of his remaining area properties
— which allegedly occupy nearly
12 football fi elds’ worth of space — up
for sale, the Real Deal reported at the
time.
A rep for beleaguered local demolition
company Breeze National — which
the New York Daily News in 2013 reported
had a deadly safety record, and
for years was run by an alleged mobster
— fi led the application to demolish the
Grashorn Building, records show.
Reps from Thor Equities did not immediately
respond to inquiries about
when demolition would begin, what
the fi rm plans to do with the site after
the building is razed, whether it plans
to knock down anymore of its properties
in the area, or why bigwigs chose
Breeze National to do the demolition
work.
Continued from cover
preservationists’ decision, cheering
the changes his team worked to make
following their fi rst appearance before
the panel, and promising to get to work
on restoring the site soon.
“We took in the commissioners’
feedback in the fi rst round, and we’re
going to kick off very soon,” said Eddie
Yadgarov.
Commission offi cials will now submit
the designers’ plans to the Department
of Buildings, which will issue
the necessary permit for the exterior
work, according to landmarks spokeswoman
Zodet Negron.
And once those permits are approved,
the developer hopes to begin
interior renovations by the end
of the summer, according to Gerner,
who said the entire job could wrap
within two years if all goes according
to plan.
Continued from cover
link
/Apply
link