Apartments Planned Above Red Restaurant
/By Danny Schrafel
dschrafel@longislandergroup.com
A proposal calls for adding a second, residential story to this New York Avenue building (right) where the restaurant Red is located.
Plans to build new apartments atop retail buildings keep on coming in Huntington village.
A proposal by applicant Lupetti Ltd., the owners of the 417 New York Ave. building which is home to Nino Antuzzi’s Red restaurant, calls for adding a second, residential story to the structure.
The plans emerged at the Huntington Planning Board’s Aug. 20 meeting.
Red is one door down from 425 New York Ave., a mixed-use, two-story commercial building that was destroyed by a fire March 1. There, rebuilding plans call for three stories, with commercial on the first floor and apartments in the two stories above.
At the Red site, the applicant needs relief from the Zoning Board of Appeals [ZBA] approval for parking.
The Planning Department seemed on board with the proposal.
“Because it’s in keeping with the development in the village and because it’s only going to two stories, the staff has no objections to the plans as proposed,” said Robert Riekert, deputy director of the town’s planning department. “The recommendation is that we would have no objection to the ZBA taking lead agency status.”
If variances are approved by the ZBA, the plans would come back to the planning department for architectural review.
Meanwhile, when it comes to rebuilding next door, after meeting initial resistance during the Aug. 6 Huntington Planning Board meeting over the building’s appearance, Planning Board Chairman Paul Mandelik said Aug. 20 that changes made to the architecture since then have been favorable.
“It looks like they’re going a positive route,” he said.
The two proposals are among a growing number of plans that, should they come to fruition, would yield dozens of new apartments above Huntington village retail spaces.
Several have already received variances from the town’s zoning board. Most recently, the board on July 17 signed off on variances for a two-story addition and 10 new apartments atop an existing 5,348 square-foot retail building on Stewart Avenue in Huntington village, which is currently the home of Classic Galleries.
A week earlier, on July 10, the ZBA granted variances for a proposal to build a two-story, 6,300 square-foot mixed-use building at 288 New York Ave. in Huntington village in place of an existing one-story retail building.
Another plan, approved by the ZBA on May 1, calls for adding two stories and 14 apartments to the Sidney Mack building on New York Avenue near Gibson Avenue.
The ZBA also signed off on a three-story, 3,328 square-foot building for 10 Wall St. May 1, which is to include a restaurant and apartments that would replace the former two-story home of The Black Lantern sushi den.
Other projects that include apartments are under construction. A three-story building currently being built by Heatherwood Communities on Gerard Street will have retail on the first floor and 12 apartments in the two stories above. The new construction replaces a one-story commercial building.
Similarly, Peter Pastorelli is building a three-story, mixed-use building with retail in place of the former Losquadro Ice House on Stewart Avenue. Retail is planned for the first floor, with 26 apartments in the stories above.
