What passes for award-winning architecture in Queens

From the Queens Courier:

The Queens Chamber of Commerce hosted its 99th annual Building Awards on Thursday, recognizing architecture and design of new buildings around the borough.

Out of 100 total entries, just 19 new construction, interior and rehabilitated use projects were selected as winners from various categories, including public use, office space, commercial and residential.

City Planning Director Carl Weisbrod was the keynote speaker at the event in the LaGuardia Marriott Hotel. The Chamber’s President’s Award was given to College Point-based developer Mattone Group.

In terms of new construction, the modern, glassy, three-story commercial building by K.O.H. Architecture at 215-15 Northern Blvd. in Bayside was among the winners. The building is home to a Tiger Schulmann, a Pizza Hut and a day care.

I heard that Frank Lloyd Crap is jealous.

2 chain restaurants open near Queens Center Mall

From the Daily News:

Diners in Queens can now have their fill of all-you-can-eat bread sticks.

Olive Garden, the popular nation chain, opened its first outpost in the borough along with LongHorn Steakhouse on a formerly vacant lot on 59th Ave. at 92nd St., across from the Queens Center Mall.

The new eateries, owned by Orlando-based Darden Restaurants, will employ about 250 workers at an average salary of $15 an hour, a representative said.

Last year, the Mattone Group paid out $3 million to settle a suit filed by the city Economic Development Corp. after the developer scrapped an agreement to build a movie theater on the lot.

I can only laugh at this. The EDC makes a deal for supersized chain restaurants to open in a borough known for its ethnic food.

DeBlasio and Katz didn't dump donor of library board

From the NY Post:

Mayor de Blasio and Borough President Melinda Katz spared only one Thomas Galante backer when they axed eight other trustees who had supported the disgraced Queens Public Library honcho — and it turns out that lucky survivor has ties to both pols.

De Blasio and Katz didn’t lay a finger on Mary Ann Mattone, 66, who happens to be the wife of developer Joseph Mattone, and whose family has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic races, including those of Katz and Hizzoner.

Mattone’s son, Carl, 55, even headlined a Katz fund-raiser in Douglaston, Queens, this summer.

But while her eight fellow pro-Galante trustees were publicly ousted two weeks ago, Mattone, a mayoral appointee, was able to lay low on the troubled board until Tuesday, when she quietly resigned directly to de Blasio.

Mattone stepped down so quietly, in fact, that a board spokeswoman was still unaware of her resignation Wednesday, until told of it by a reporter.

Courier's "Man of the Year" is controversial developer

The Queens Courier presents our Man of the Year, Joseph M. Mattone Sr.: founder, father, philanthropist. Testimonials from Mario Cuomo and Bruce Ratner are contained within.

Interestingly, there's no mention of this.

Or this.

Or this.

Details of shady Mattone deal being FOILed

From the Queens Chronicle:

Convinced that something is amiss in an Elmhurst real estate deal, community board members and civic association leaders are investigating the history of a 2.3-acre property located between the Queens Center mall and the Long Island Expressway, where the Mattone Group plans to build three restaurants: Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse and Joe’s Crab Shack. The Newtown Civic Association filed a Freedom of Information Request with the city’s Economic Development Corporation for all documents related to the site, last Wednesday. If the EDC’s records confirm their suspicions, the civic association will bring its findings to the city’s Department of Investigation.

Newtown Civic Association President Tom McKenzie, a longtime member of the Community Board 4 Planning Committee, remembers when the city sold the land, which was then a municipal parking lot, to the Mattone Group for $2.2 million in 2001.

Mattone signed a contract with the EDC, promising to build a movie theater on the lot within four and half years and to buy the dilapidated Elmwood Theater across the street and donate the proceeds to the Catholic Medical Center of Brooklyn and Queens, which operated nearby St. John’s Hospital. If those conditions were not met, the city would be able to buy back the property for $1.

Mattone had originally planned to have Loews operate the theater, but Loews declared bankruptcy and Mattone struggled to find a replacement. The lot has been used for commercial truck parking until recently, when Mattone erected a fence around the property. Mattone never purchased the Elmwood Theater and therefore no proceeds were donated to the Catholic Medical Center. The theater was sold to the Rock Church and St. John’s Hospital went bankrupt in 2009.

In 2010, the EDC issued an eviction notice and Mattone sued the city. The judge ruled in favor of the EDC, but Mattone appealed and reached a settlement with the agency for $3 million and signed a new contract with it on Feb. 6, 2013, modifying the zoning requirements so that Mattone could build the restaurants. The money went straight to the agency and the promises made to the community evaporated.

Mattones return to screw Elmhurst again

From the Queens Chronicle:

A former parking lot between the Queens Center mall and the Long Island Expressway has been empty for the past 12 years and now the developers who own it want to build three restaurants there.

The College Point-based Mattone Group presented its plan at an informational Newtown Civic Association meeting in Corona Tuesday night. The company would bring in an Olive Garden, a Longhorn Steakhouse and Joe’s Crab Shack, which will cover approximately 25,000 to 30,000 square feet, surrounded by free parking spaces. If the plan moves forward, they predict that the establishments will open in April or May 2014.

Most of the meeting focused on the civic association members’ parking and traffic congestion-related concerns, but Robert Valdes-Clausell, an officer of the Newtown Civic Association and a member of Community Board 4, brought up the property’s history and the developer’s history of shortchanging the surrounding community.

Valdes-Clausell also noted the meeting’s unusual timing, in the summer, when many community members are away.

“This has all the trappings of something that is not kosher,” he said of the new plan.

The city’s Economic Development Corp. sold the property, which was a city parking lot, to Mattone on Dec. 17, 2001 for $2.2 million. The City Council, including the area’s former Councilman John Sabini (D-Elmhurst), approved the deal, overriding the objections of CB 4 and disregarding the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.

Mattone’s contract with EDC contained several restrictions. The developer was supposed to build a movie theater, which Loews would operate, within four and a half years and buy the dilapidated Elmwood Theater, and give the proceeds to Catholic Medical Services, which then operated St. John’s Hospital according to Valdes-Clausell. If those restrictions were not met, the EDC was entitled to buy back the property for $1.

The Mattone Group did not comply with the restrictions, but the EDC did not repossess the property. Loews declared bankruptcy shortly after, and Mattone never found a replacement as the movie-theater business was in decline. Therefore, Mattone never purchased the Elmwood Theater and Loews sold it to the Rock Church instead. St. John’s Hospital filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

On Feb. 6, 2013 Mattone signed a new contract with the EDC, in which the developer paid $3 million to modify the original deed from 2001, allowing it to build the restaurants on the property.

Mattone claims that they did not need to seek community approval because the proposed restaurants are in accordance with area zoning laws and that informing the community before beginning construction was merely a courtesy.

Valdes-Clausell accused Mattone of putting the cart before the horse, by making a new deal with EDC without informing or asking the community about it first.

Moreover, the $3 million in the recent contract went straight to the EDC, not the community.

Future of Atlas Park up in the air

From the Daily News:

The Shops at Atlas Park will unleash a new weapon during its summertime battle for survival.

The foreclosed Glendale mall - which is expected to be sold at auction next month - has hired a prominent agent to lure tenants ahead of a crucial shopping season for the open-air complex.

The entry of CB Richard Ellis, one of the world's largest commercial real estate firms, ends a 14-month management by Michael Mattone of the Mattone Group, whose contract recently expired.

Next in the Atlas Park saga: a highly anticipated sale - as early as June - that could determine the long-term success of the Cooper Ave. center.

It's also possible that a pact might be struck before the auction date, as teams and players often do prior to drafts in sports leagues.

"It's kind of like the draft," said Paul Millus, the court-appointed lawyer who controls the mall during foreclosure. "Sometimes you have a deal before you start."

Millus said several people have "expressed some measure of interest" in purchasing the mall, though he would not name them.

Community leaders have long figured the mall's founders, the family of former Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Dale Hemmerdinger, would bid on the mall they conceived.

A group of Israeli investors is also in the running, with hopes to shape the mall in the mold of the Tanger Outlets on Long Island, said City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village).

Crowley herself wants the City University of New York to offer classes at Atlas Park - a spot she thinks would be convenient for students in southern and western Queens.

Crowley said she will raise the possibility with university bigwigs after the city passes its budget this summer. CUNY officials did not return calls seeking comment.

Whether CUNY would even be welcome at Atlas Park depends on the philosophy of the mall's next owner.

It was just a joke, people!

From the Daily News:

In the borough of Queens, Walmart is no joking matter.

That may explain the outrage when the Queens Tribune newspaper reported last week that the discount giant had moved into the Atlas Park mall under the cover of dark.

But it was part of the weekly's annual April Fool's Day issue, replete with a doctored picture of a Walmart sign above the buildings at Atlas Park.

The gag didn't amuse members of the union representing grocery workers.

"Some people looked at the story and thought it was real," said Pat Purcell, spokesman for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500. "Dozens of our members called in, a little freaked out..."

The story, with the byline "Wiegot A. Bigbocks," said Walmart was hoping to open the first of many stores in the city in Queens. It jokes that parking fees at the mall have jumped to $73 an hour.

"The good news is that our members passed this unplanned drill with flying colors," said Bruce Both, president of the union. "Our switchboards were inundated with calls from members who were ready to drop everything and head to the picket line."

The bad news is that your members are morons.

Unfortunately, this statement was not part of the joke, although it should be:

"It says a lot about our journalistic integrity that people read our stories and have high expectations," Nussbaum said.

The Trib has more about the mall's real predicament.

Stein Mart, Amish Market leaving Atlas Park?

From the Queens Tribune:

The Receiver is trying to evict the high-end Amish Market from its site. The site currently occupied by Stein Mart, once-touted as the anchor for the mall, is now available for immediate lease – as a supermarket.

Stein Mart spokeswoman Susan Edelman maintains that Stein Mart is under contract. “We have a multi-year lease that began in April 2006 and goes for quite some time,” she said Tuesday.

On Wednesday, however, at a breakfast for brokers, commercial broker Capstone Realty distributed packages showing the sites at Atlas currently available. One page in the packet pitches the 32,534-square-foot Stein Mart site as “available immediately.”

“The community of Glendale is crying out for a supermarket to move into their neighborhood, and we have just the location for you,” the prepared materials read.

One prospective tenant, Western Beef, has already turned down Atlas Park over parking access.

New direction for Atlas Park

From the Daily News:

The upscale Glendale mall, recently tossed into foreclosure and now controlled by a court-appointed lawyer, will shift its focus to middle-end retailers, and may cut fees for one-hour parking, its new management has revealed.

"Upscale is upscale. You have to have a community like Manhasset [in Nassau County] to keep that mall going," the mall's receiver, Paul Millus, said last week at a Glendale Civic Association meeting.

Millus and the mall's new manager, Michael Mattone, of the Mattone Group, listed Aeropostale, Banana Republic, Gap and Urban Outfitters as among the stores they would consider.

Millus, who is in charge of the mall until a foreclosure sale that is expected in early 2010, said he may also eliminate parking fees for those who spend less than an hour and a half in the lot.

He figured the charges steer potential shoppers away from Atlas Park, which features a Borders bookstore, a movie theater and several restaurants.

One thing is that Bobbi & the Strays may not be staying.

Mall heavyweights to manage Atlas Park

From the Times Ledger:

The new company managing the Shops at Atlas Park will be the College Point−based Mattone Group, sources close to the arrangement said Tuesday, which brought a positive response from elected officials and community leaders.

“I look forward to working with the Mattone Group over the coming weeks to improve the Shops at Atlas Park,” City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D−Middle Village) said. “I trust that they will attract and retain quality businesses that will help serve as a positive economic engine for our community’s small businesses and local residents.”

Kathy Masi, president of the Glendale Civic Association, that was often at odds with the Hemmerdingers over the high−end mall, also hailed the decision.

“I am pleased that they are a Queens−based operation and hopefully have an understanding of what it takes to do successful retail business in our area,” she said. “I look forward to working with them.”