Developer: This will be Staten Island’s new ‘hot spot’
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A North Shore street rich in history is about to become
Staten Island’s next “hot spot,” says the owner of the block-long building on Minthorne Street in Tompkinsville, which is currently under renovation.
The 33,000-square-foot warehouse that dates back to the 1800s currently houses Flagship Brewery and will soon be home to a DaddyO’s BBQ.
With an additional 10,000-square-feet of space still available for lease, the building has begun its transformation into a trendy, hip “urban street,” said Gary C. Angiuli, the property owner whose family’s car dealerships were housed in the warehouse from the 1970s until 2006.
“Because of the unique location, which includes the train station and parking on an off-the-beaten-path side street, I think this will be a place where young people — especially the artist population and musicians — congregate in the same way they might in a place like Williamsburg, Brooklyn,” he said, noting the site also has 80 parking spaces.
To create this vibe, Angiuli is developing a mix of homegrown retailers and restaurants.
While the project was initially dubbed “Back of the Bay,” Angiuli says he’s decided to have the structure named after the street on which it sits.
“We decided we wanted the name to be more authentic, so it’s just being branded as Minthorne Street,” said Angiuli. “We want it to be more of an urban street than a tourist destination.”
Because he wants to attract local retailers, Angiuli is offering rent prices at about half of the market rate for the area. He hopes the low rent will draw grassroots tenants who will develop the raw warehouse space.
Angiuli said he is especially hoping to attract more local restaurants to the facility, as well as tenants who will provide a performance space for artists.
PRESERVING THE ARCHITECTURAL INTEGRITY
The street is named after Minthorne Tompkins, who helped develop neighboring Stapleton. Several small houses along Minthorne Street earned the nickname “Ragpickers’ Row” in the mid-19th century. Before the current structures were turned into warehouses, the four buildings on Minthorne Street housed one of the Island’s first hotels, an ice house and firehouse, said Amie Gross, a Long Island City-based architect working on the design of the project.
“Before we started the renovation work, it looked like it was one big stucco building. It turns out that it’s four separate buildings that were built from the middle of the 1800s up until the turn-of-the-century,” she said.
“There is a real heritage about these buildings. There were little glimpses of the past and the contractor (VC Construction Management LLC) started to strip away all the coverings, and what we found were these beautiful elements that no one knew were there,” she added, noting a solid terracotta medallion, as well as terracotta windows, were uncovered during construction.
She said the buildings have been stripped down to the original stone and brick, and will be renovated with “modernist materials.”
Gross said custom-designed lighting will transform the building at night.
“The lighting will highlight the original architectural details of the building and of the new elements we are adding. The lighting will be very nuanced,” she said.
CONSTRUCTION PLAN
Work on the building where Flagship Brewery is housed should be complete within the next three months, said Angiuli. Contractors are currently refacing the facade of the Flagship Brewery, which was designed by the New Dorp-based Rampulla Associates Architects.
“We are putting in corrugated steel, a blue metal canopy, and some green ceramic tile,” said Angiuli.
Construction on DaddyO’s should begin in the next few weeks, with the restaurant opening late this year or early next year, said Angiuli.
The third phase of construction will be the renovation of the Victory Boulevard side of the property.
“We are currently in negotiations with a major league artist about painting a mural to span the entire side of the Victory Boulevard side of the building. The idea is to create an iconic image on the corner of Bay Street and Victory Boulevard, which millions of tourists will see and come to visit,” he said.
Phase four of construction will be an overhaul of the Bay Street side of the buildings which houses several city agencies, said Angiuli.
