L&M Publications
Merrick Life • Bellmore Life • Freeport-Baldwin Leader • Wantagh-Seaford Citizen

P.C. Richard will not be turning soil over to start new construction on its current Sunrise Highway store until further notice, Tom Palmer, chief financial officer, told Bellmore Life. 

While the company has plans to expand its Bellmore store because it is the company’s most successful one, and tear down the old car dealership it owns across the street from its current store on Sunrise Highway, there is no formal commitment as to when it might begin construction, he said.

“With the economy the way it is and other stores such as Circuit City closing,” the company is watching the situation closely, Mr. Palmer continued. 

According to Chris Benes, attorney for neighbors who opposed variances P.C. Richard sought in November, 2008, the company had plans to tear down the old car dealership building and construct a makeshift building until it could build a new P.C. Richard building at the present site.

Mr. Palmer said that plan is one of many still being considered, but would not elaborate.

A source close to  the initial variance proceeding in 2008 said that Mr. Palmer recently indicated that plans to tear down the old car dealership could begin as early as late August.

Mr. Palmer denied saying that.   

P.C. Richard purchased the Shore Buick property in anticipation of increasing the size of its present Bellmore store in November 2008. The company requested variances from the town to enable it to increase its parking spaces, for example, by using the car dealership property. Its plans for increasing the size of its present store included greatly reducing the parking spaces in both the front and back of its current store.

But neighbors directly behind the car dealership balked at the new increases in parking spaces, because some of the property was still considered residential. Nor did they want egresses and ingresses (in-and-out driveways) into residential streets, part of P.C. Richard’s plan.

Mr. Benes, of Gold, Stewart, Kravatz and Benes LLP, said that P.C. Richard’s plans for the original building changed over the course of the variance hearings. He said P.C. Richard devised a plan for a second story for storage purposes, and then changed it to include a basement instead for storage purposes. 

Numbers floated during the proceedings showed possible expansion from 24,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet at the time.

One thing that didn’t change was to build the store closer to Sunrise Highway, thus eliminating parking spaces in the front of the store.

“P.C. Richard’s Bellmore store is its flagship  store,” Mr. Benes said.

P.C. Richard got its variances in November 2008 – after negotiating with the neighbors to purchase a home and keep it residential, agree to no egresses/ingresses into neighboring streets and to provide certain types of fencing – according to Hempstead Town zoning Board of Appeals Secretary Joseph Pelligrini. He said town law required the company to apply for a building permit within four months after grant of the variances.

He added that any applicant then has one year to begin construction, or must re-apply for another permit. “There are no restrictions on how many times it can re-apply,” he said, “but if the board sees these repeat extensions it could scrutinize the request” and determine that the applicant again re-apply for the variations it originally asked for. 

“The property management department has all the necessary paperwork to file an extension, and could very well do so again,” said Mr. Palmer. But he was unaware of the board’s scrutiny at repeat applications for building permits.

If P.C. Richards does not begin construction by the winter of 2011, it would be have to re-apply for its third building permit under a 2008 grant of variances.

Harley-Davidson to expand

Meanwhile, Harley-Davidson of Nassau County on Sunrise Highway plans to expand its current second building, adding up to an additional 8,000 square feet to enlarge its service department, co-owner Richard Cristani said.

Its second building – an old privately owned service station garage, is considerably smaller than its main store, which sells bikes and other motorcycle gear, and is currently used for storage purposes only. 

“We need more space” because a building the company has on Old Country Road just doesn’t offer enough space anymore, he continued.

The plan is to add a second floor by building out the existing frame to accommodate the second floor. Currently, some 10 or more cars are stored in the space at the back of the building.

“We started this plan three years ago,” Mr. Cristani said. When Harley-Davidson of Nassau County first came to Bellmore, its plans for using the back of the store to repair motorcycles met with strong resistance because of noise concerns.

“The idea that there is a driveway out into Newbridge Road has always been a sore spot,” Mr. Cristani continued. “So, when we planned for the expansion we thought to build the entranceway into the service department, and the exit from the service department, all from Sunrise Highway.”

He insisted that  neighbors had nothing to do with the expansion and the shift away from repairing motorbikes behind the current store. “We needed more space,” he reiterated. There have been no complaints from neighbors, he added.

But he ended with a twist: “If we do get the town permits to build, we still don’t know if we’ll do it. The economy is not that great, and we could be doing better,” he concluded.

Auto body shop

Bellmore Life also learned from construction workers at the site of the old Max Dobler, Tinsmith, building that an auto body shop was being built.

Persons close to the owner with knowledge of future plans for the building would neither confirm nor deny this information. 

By Doug Finlay

Doug Finlay is the assistant editor for Bellmore Life newspaper. He is also an award-winning writer for L&M Publications.