Italian Cuisine Coming to Tavern; Lease Talks Continue (updated)

A new restaurant tenant was announced for the Weaver Street tavern last night, but once again the Board of Trustees entered into executive session to discuss whether or not – or under what conditions – to lease adjacent public land to the owners of 2-4 Weaver St. for use as a parking lot.

Trustee Jon Mark announced at the start of the 6:30 p.m. meeting that the landlord, F.S. Fish, had found and signed a commercial anchor tenant to occupy the space on the lower level of the building, which is at the corner between Wilmot Rd. and Weaver St. at Heathcote Five Corners.

He said the restaurant is from southern Italy, and will be named Apulia, for the boot-heel region in Italy. Just as happened on the May 3 meeting to address the lease, the Trustees shut the doors to the public after a very short discussion about the property.

At last night's meeting, however, the Trustees had additional material to review; F.S. Fish presented a revised lease request which extended the renewal of a formerly 5-year lease to run for a 15-year term instead.

Three members of the Heathcote Five Corners Coalition, a preservation group devoted to minimalizing the negative impact of new developments in the intersection on nearby residents, were present at the meeting. One of them, Janet Bell, requested that the Board consider the impracticality of the lease's call for a 15-year commitment on use of the land, since the restaurant may go out of business in a few years.

The coalition is worried that, among other things, it may leave a loophole for unstated uses by the building's owner.

"I don't remember any restaurant lasting 15 years on that site," said Bell. 

In an earlier interview, Mayor Carolyn Stevens said the details of the finalized lease would not be released to the public until the terms came before the board for a vote.

The last time the owner, F.S. Fish, came before Scarsdale's Board of Trustees was in February, when scores of residents turned out to vocally oppose the efforts by Fish to purchase the same sliver of municipal property that is now under consideration for the lease.

On May 3, the first follow-up since that meeting on February 2nd, the trustees considered reissuing a lease of the relatively valueless-to-the-Village land, which lies alongside the Heathcote Bypass that has long served as the building's parking lot.

The Heathcote Five Corners Coalition, though fledgling at just one year old, has emerged as a serious and potentially powerful public-opinion body that the trustees must consider moving forward on any issues related to development in the five corners area.

Over 100 residents turned out in force to the February 2 meeting, and the coalition has most recently urged the Board of Trustees to turn down the applicant's proposal for a 49-year lease on the land that runs between Wilmot Rd. and Weaver St.