Nostalgic look at landmark bar sounds alarm
“This could be the next South Street Seaport.” That is the way Stuart Venner, owner of 71 Atlantic Ave., referred to the potential development happening around his building, as quoted in a recent New York Times article. Venner’s property is part of a group of seven buildings on Atlantic Avenue below Hicks Street that has agreed to sell only if they collectively get an offer of at least $56 million. The block is literally a stone’s throw from the proposed new high-rises at Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park, as well as the tower developments planned across the street on the old Long Island College Hospital (LICH) site.
What is astounding is that Venner and members of the Montero family, owners of the beloved landmark bar bearing their name at number 73, waxed eloquent to the Times about the possibilities of selling a whole block of buildings to one developer. Their dreams, brought vividly to life in the Times piece, did not mention that the entire row of buildings not only falls within the Brooklyn Heights Landmark District lines, but also within a separate zoning heights limitation of 50 feet.
Said one longtime Heights resident, “It’s as if the developers are now saying ‘the waterfront belongs to the future; the future belongs to us…’ it’s a bold new world.”