Construction At The Inn At New Hyde Park

This article was in the local New Hyde Park newspaper on November 3rd. I'm sure everyone who is booked there (like us) want to keep up on the construction . . . .


Hearing for Plans of Expansion of The Inn at New Hyde Park
By Margaret Whitely
Recently, the New Hyde Park Village held a hearing for the proposed plans for the expansion of The Inn at New Hyde Park, formerly known as the New Hyde Park Inn, located at 214 Jericho Turnpike, New Hyde Park and doing business as N.H.P.I. LLC.



The Inn of New Hyde Park Manager Frank Martino shows a rendering of how the front of The Inn of New Hyde Park will look after renovation.
It was the general consensus of the residents in the audience that the expansion will result in a marvelous restoration of this true landmark in the Village of New Hyde Park. There was only one dissenter.

Prior to the beginning of the explanation of the expansion, New Hyde Park Village Attorney John Spellman said that the reason the applicant was before the board was because they were seeking an Extension of the Special Use Permitted, necessary for a Catering Hall and for the Expansion of a Non-Conforming Building. On the Tax Map the property is listed as Section No. 32, Block No. 85, Lot. No. 302.

Attorney Peter Mineo of 330 Old Country Road, Mineola, presented, in a concise and clear manner, what is planned.

Mineo said that the owners Guliano Botticelli, Reed, Roger and Ron Sakowich were all present at the hearing along with Frank Martino, who is on board to manage the catering and restaurant portion of The Inn.

Mineo also had the architect for the building, Bill Novak and traffic expert Robert Eshbacher to describe their phase of the hearing.

The main proposal, Mineo explained, is for enlarging the building and adding underground parking and to create a beautiful garden area. Mineo said, 'Board Zoning Hearing on Oct. 11 closed the hearing and reserved decision. Apparently, there never was a special use for the restaurant because it is in excess of 100 years old.'

Mineo continued, ' I am sure that everyone here is familiar with the location of The Inn at New Hyde Park, formerly known as the New Hyde Park Inn. It is situated on the south side of Jericho Turnpike and extends for an entire block south to First Avenue, east to South Third Avenue and West to South Second Street.

'The proposal is to demolish several buildings on the block and create a garden area and to create an underground parking area. The property is located in three zoning units. The entire front, on Jericho Turnpike, is located in the business zone and that extends on the east side on South Second Street and on the west side on South Third Street for 175 feet. One hundred feet on South Second Street and 65 feet on South Third Street is in the residential district.'

Mineo then turned the meeting over to architect Novak who showed many drawings of the projected expansion including a circular courtyard for the drop off and pickup of passengers by the valet parkers.

He said, 'The purpose of the expansion is to create an upscale restaurant, with catering facilities using the existing building, two stories, with materials that will reflect the old world elegance and with landscaping to create a beautiful garden. In addition, design an underground parking area only accessed by valet parking.'

Novak continued, 'The garden area will include a gazebo, waterfalls with a scenic park like area where people, on site, will be able to stroll around, take photos with a beautiful background.

'Currently, the restaurant does not have a cocktail room and the interior will be redesigned to where this will be available for weddings and other events prior to proceeding to the main ballroom.

'Cars will enter from south Second Street, to the courtyard and will then be taken down the ramp and into the parking structure. All cars will be parked by a valet and on the ramp leading to the parking garage as many as 10 to 12 cars may be stacked prior to parking.

'Currently, the Inn has about 35 to 40 parking spaces on site with a municipal parking lot across the street. With the new parking garage there will be 122 parking accommodations and it will remove the risk of crossing Jericho Turnpike from the parking lot across the street and now patrons will not have to park on the side streets of the Inn.'

Novak concluded, 'The buildings on the property, owned by the Sakowich family, will be demolished while the two houses on the Southwest corner will remain. The thinking of the owners was that they want the entire design to blend into the neighborhood and instead of constructing a wall around the area where the garden is displayed to simply have a barrier of trees and shrubs to enhance the entire area.'

Frank Martino, who will be the manager of the entire operation, and he explained that he has had 38 years of catering experience having been associated with Tavern on The Green, The Watermill, owned his own restaurant and most recently was associated with the Scotto Fox Hollow restaurant.

Martino said, 'The applicants came to me and said they had a vision and since they had lived here in New Hyde Park all their lives they wanted to create something nice for the community and something they could be proud of.

'There is a new trend in catering facilities and that is to have one bride at a time and to devote the entire facility to making that bride's day special with a boutique atmosphere and to have a chapel available if needed.

'We plan to have beautiful gardens with beautiful flowers and foliage. To have an outdoor cocktail reception that will only last one hour and a half with only background music such as a harp or violin and no DJ or band anywhere, except in the main ballroom. The guests will then proceed, after the cocktail time, to the ballroom for the next four hours. The latest the cocktail area will be open outside will be until 8:30 p.m. And, this of course, is during the summer months and weather permitting. There will be a bar located in the garden area but it will only be open during the cocktail time. No drinks will be served outside when it is closed. There will also be a designated smoking area so that there will be no reason for guests to leave and go outside or to stand around the garden area to smoke.

'The main concern of the bride is to have no TVs and no outside drinking so that the entire focus of the guests in the main ballroom will be on her and her wedding party.

'The facility will accommodate 400 and the restaurant, will accommodate 150 patrons. The entire occupancy of the restaurant is currently 850 patrons after the renovation the occupancy will be 840.'

Board members asked what would happen if there were two events, back to back. For instance a wedding ending at 6 p.m. when would the next start and Martino said about 6:30 p.m. because that is all the turnaround time that was needed.

The board also wanted to know how that would work with 400 guests coming and 400 guests going and it was explained that in parties of that size, which would be highly unusual, Martino would hire enough valet parkers to be able to move that many cars. He said it would be done very quickly and very efficiently.

Martino also assured the board that the kitchen will not be expanded and that fact alone is self-limiting as to the amount of patrons that can be accommodated at the Inn.

When Robert Eshbacker, the traffic expert, came to the podium he explained that there would be no cars exiting onto Jericho Turnpike. The traffic will flow out of the parking lot with signs indicating that there will be no left turn back into the residential area.

The entire detailed plans may be viewed by anyone interested at the Inn of New Hyde Park.

During the open portion of the meeting, when the audience could speak, as mentioned before, there was only one person who was against the expansion.

One man, who lives on South 11th Street said he was delighted to support something in New Hyde Park that the residents could be proud of. He said so far the only landmarks are Henry's Inn and Umberto's that makes New Hyde Park special and now with the expansion of the Inn at New Hyde Park residents can point to that as a building to be proud of.

New Hyde Park Village Historian Florence Lisanti said that when she moved to the village in 1950 it was an entirely different village. She said, 'Now, in this day and age, we need to have businesses to have vision and to expand and that is what is happening with this beautiful expansion.'

Another South 9th Street resident said he was in full support of having The Inn of New Hyde Park as a beacon for all to come to.

A 17 year resident felt the plans for the Inn were great and the expansion welcome.

Nicholas Nuzzi, of 6th Avenue, said that anything the Sakowich family was involved in would be for the good of the community.

One resident who lives in the neighborhood said, 'If anyone else was developing the property for instance someone who was not from the area, I would be upset, but since these people have lived here all their lives and still live here, I am certain that the new plans for the Inn will only enhance my house and the entire neighborhood.'

Resident after resident came to the microphone with similar sentiments.

The one dissenter said he felt that there would be noise around the entire area as people are coming and going with horns honking and disruption to the entire neighborhood and he ended his complaints with a plea to the board to, 'vote this down.'

Martino addressed that concern stating that people will be leaving from their cars in the contained area, or courtyard, of the Inn and they will not be milling around the restaurant, as is now the case.

The board then closed the hearing and the application will be sent to the Nassau County Planning Board. As soon as word is received from NC Planning, the board will vote on the application.

Re: Construction At The Inn At New Hyde Park

I cant believe all this, my family has been going there for years, we live right down the block, I am not getting married there, but I am sure it will be great