Island Park is getting its own grocery store.
By AMANDA HOFFMANN November 28, 2008
King Kullen, a family-owned supermarket chain that has 49 stores on Long Island and Staten Island, signed a long-term lease in late September to open a store in the Barnum Island section of Island Park.
The proposed 67,500-square-foot retail center, which includes King Kullen and several smaller stores, would replace an auto body shop, a warehouse, a junkyard and an empty lot bordered by Beach Avenue and Waterfront Boulevard.
“I would hope the project is up and running in two years,” said John Vitale, who owns the six-acre site and is the principal of Barnum Land Development LLC. Vitale also owns the Bridgeview nightclub and catering hall, directly across Waterfront Boulevard from the proposed retail center, and nearby restaurants Paddy McGees and Coyote Grill.
“It’s very important to me that the shopping center keeps up with the look and the standards of Bridgeview,” Vitale said. “I want this to blend in and feel like you are in a nautical village, kind of like the Hamptons, with that New England village type of feel.”
Vitale said the retail center would have a “park-like setting” where shoppers could enjoy a leisurely cup of coffee while they unwind and enjoy the view of Reynolds Channel.
“It’s on the water – people can stop and walk and enjoy it, and I think that will be a strong attraction to shoppers in choosing to come down here to Island Park,” Vitale said.
But according to residents of the Yacht Club, a 128-unit condominium complex in the heart of the industrial zone, shoppers would add to traffic congestion during the summer months, when activity at local bars and restaurants is in full swing. “We are very concerned about the density and with being mobbed by people and cars,” said John Cestaro, a member of the Yacht Club’s board of managers. “We’re mobbed now, and that’s without a King Kullen.”