New Restaurant at 2 Weaver? Board Votes on Lease

EXCLUSIVE – The last time the issue of 2-4 Weaver St. came before Scarsdale's Board of Trustees, a critical mass of angry citizens turned out to vocally oppose plans by the building's current owner, F.S. Fish, to purchase a piece of municipal property and expand the iconic former tavern.

At tonight's hearing – the first since that meeting on February 2nd – the trustees will once again hear from F.S. Fish and consider renewing the developer's lease of the inherently consequential (to F.S. Fish) – but relatively valueless-to-the-Village – sliver of land along Heathcote Bypass that has long served as the building's parking lot.

The presence of the Heathcote Five Corners Coalition in the discussion, a group that only came about in the past year, poses a serious and fiercly comitted force the trustess must reckon with for any and all decisions Heathcote Corners-related.

Not only did the coalition bring out over 100 residents in force to the February 2 meeting, but they've released a strongly worded letter urging 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. and which will be discussed tonight (and is expected to go quickly into executive session.)

The coalition suspects the developer intends to use the proposed lease as a scheme for furthering other development on the piece of land, and in a letter, attached to this story, suggests they should submit a full plan for use before the trustees approve anything.

"If the Village has not already done so, the Village should remind the Developer in writing that the 2005 lease has terminated."

"...It would appear that the Developer has determined that it can more profitably develop its property in conjunction with the Land, and once again is attempting to do so without providing the Village with fair consideration for the use of its Land," reads the coalition's statement."

"...Moreover, since the Developer is not currently operating a restaurant or cocktail lounge, any new lease should not become effective until such time as a restaurant and cocktail lounge are operated..."

As complete coincidence would have it, however, I called the newest phone number posted on the exterior or 2-4 Weaver St. for my own, Patchy purposes (namely, looking for a new workspace) and was told by a gentleman who had no idea of my interest in the story as, well, a story, that a restaurant has already signed a new lease, and will be moving in for service shortly. (And that I would have to compete with parking spaces with it.)

Presumably, that new tenant will come up tonight as well as the corporation makes a case for the lease's renewal.

Millicent Kaufman, chair of the Heathcote Five Corners Coalition, said she was surprised to hear the news.

"We were not aware of that, we know they've been advertising the space," she said. "If they do have the restaurant tenant, they would satisfy the terms of the current lease" for the municipal property, she said. 

She noted that the previous lease, mentioned in the letter should have expired when the last tenant left, in 2005,.

"They [the Village] should have sent a letter to the tenant to terminate it, " said Kaufman. "If they now have a restaurant tenant, we have no problem with the existing municpal lease," she said. "If they want to continue that usage, that's fine."

"Our concern is their continuing plan to build on the parking lot," she said.

As to whether or not the coalition will be out in force, she said, the eminent executive session of the trustees may dissuade some folks from turning out. 

"Executive session means that the public will be barred from that discussion. I'd don't know how many people will show up, but I imagine those that do will be a little frustrated by that." 

Even more frustrating, once it moves forward with construction, may be the new plans for the former Citgo Service Station, over which a new retail site will be developed in the coming months.

Yes, retail was expected to go in there – but what wasn't expected, as some residents learned at an April Scarsdale Neighborhood Association Presidents (SNAP) meeting, was the strangely situated truck loading zone. Namely: right on Heathcote Rd.