| Le Pain Quotidien plans to open a new location at Gateway Plaza later this year, and hopes to install outdoor seating for dozens of diners on the busy sidewalk on South End Avenue, near the driveway that serves as an entrance to Battery Park City’s largest residential complex.
“We hope to have outdoor seating with 23 tables and 58 seats,” explained Michael Kelly, a consultant representing Le Pain Quotidien, at a Tuesday night meeting of the Battery Park City Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1).
Mr. Kelly came before the Committee as part of the application process for a liquor license. He noted that the restaurant’s owners hope to open by August of this year. He noted that the business is not applying for a sidewalk cafe license because they don’t need one: the portions of the sidewalk they plan to use are located entirely on private property, owned by Gateway’s landlords.
Members of the Committee were quick to share concerns. “This is the world’s business corner,” warned Ninfa Segarra, co-chair of the Battery Park City Committee. “We have kids, school buses, traffic coming in, and the taxi stand.”
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| Consultant Michael Kelly, standing at right, explains the plan by his clients, the owners of Le Pain Quotidien, to open a new restaurant in Gateway, with dozens of outdoor tables located on a busy sidewalk along South End Avenue. |
“You hear a lot of rumbling,” added Committee member Tammy Meltzer, “because there are lots of concerns about the amount of outdoor seating and where you’re locating. You’re too close to the lobby of the building and taking up too much of the sidewalk, even if it is private property.”
“This eats up substantially our ability to get in and our of the building with carriages and wheel chairs,” Ms. Segarra continued. “This would be a hazard. The landlord might like it, since he took out our three local businesses and we no longer have them, you are probably paying substantial rent. But there’s literally no breathing space there.”
This was a reference to three shops that were shut down at the end of March — the Cafe Express delicatessen, the Blooming Nail and Spa nail salon, and the News Plus newsstand — which had been mainstays in Battery Park City for decades. The owners of each confirmed to the Broadsheet that they had offered Gateway’s owners enormous increases in rent in order to be allowed to stay. But all said that the landlord didn’t want them to continue there at any price. Instead, Gateway moved ahead with a plan to evict the business, combine the three small shops they had once occupied into a larger space, and rent it to a more upscale tenant.
Le Pain Quotidien is a chain of bakery-restaurants with more 200 locations in 18 countries, several dozen of which are located in Manhattan, with one of these in northern Battery Park City, at the foot of River Terrace.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Mr. Kelly explained that “we put the seating so close to the building because that space isn’t used.” Ms. Segarra responded, “it is used. We stand there and talk to our neighbors, we bring out packages.”
Committee member Tom Goodkind said, “the idea of all the children passing drunk people every day on our number one egress is just disgusting. It just doesn’t work in so many ways. Kids aren’t going to be able to do their homework.”
Mr. Notaro tried to narrow the discussion, saying, “let’s focus on what’s at hand. The outdoor cafe is not something we vote on. What they have applied for is an on-premises liquor license.”
But Ms. Segarra responded, “if we only have authority over the liquor license and that’s the only way we can stop this project, then that’s what we have to use.”
Mr. Kelly then offered, “I’m hearing the concerns, and we’ll take some tables away.” He then offered to remove seven tables from the plan, which had been located on the sidewalk near the entrance to the 395 South End Avenue building. He also promised to move several of the remaining tables closer to the building walls, so they take less space on the sidewalk.
Ms. Meltzer wasn’t satisfied, saying, “there are residents who live on the second and third floors on that side of the building whose windows will be less than ten feet from the outdoor cafe.”
Mr. Kelly made an additional offer to “stipulate that there will be at least eight feet of open sidewalk all the way around,” the new restaurant.
Based on these compromises, the Battery Park City Committee voted to endorse Le Pain Quotidien’s application for a liquor license.
The next step in the process is for the application to come before CB1 as a whole, at its monthly meeting on Tuesday, May 24. This meeting will be held in the auditorium of Gibney Dance, at 280 Broadway (enter on Chambers Street), starting at 6:00 pm |
