Developer Plans Mixed-Use Building After Restaurant Denied

Pictured Wednesday is the 355 New York Ave. building in Huntington, where developer Larry Weinberger wants to build a mixed-use building with 10 apartments. Long Islander News photo/Janee Law

By Janee Law
jlaw@longislandergroup.com

Larry Weinberger approached the Huntington Zoning Board of Appeals earlier this year with a request for parking relief so that he could move forward with his plan to build a restaurant and bar with a stage for musical performances. The board denied the relief.

Instead, Weinberger has taken his plans in a new direction.

He is scheduled to appear before the ZBA tonight to request parking relief for a planned mixed-use building with 7,315 square feet of retail space on the ground floor and 10 apartments across the second.

Wayne Edwards, a Uniondale-based attorney who previously represented Weinberger for the restaurant and bar plan, which did not include apartments, said Wednesday that “the parking situation in the village is basically not conducive to getting permission to operate a restaurant at this point in time.

“So, he’s exploring another avenue.”

Edwards added that Weinberger is now being represented by Uniondale-based attorney John Farrell, who did not return calls for comment before deadline.

Weinberger, who also did not return calls for comment, has proposed the mixed-use plan for 355 New York Ave., the former temporary location of Energy Fitness.

Weinberger, of Bellmore, is a financial partner of the Great South Bay Music Festival and is also a real estate director with MGD Investment.

In order to move forward with the plan, Weinberger needs the ZBA to grant a special use permit to utilize municipal parking. The public hearing is slated for 6 p.m. tonight at town hall.