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18 C R Y D E R P O I N T JULY/AUGUST DANGEROUS CROSSING Residents say area around park unsafe for pedestrians Irene Rama and her posse of youngsters look carefully before they cross the street and all the way to Francis Lewis Park. THE COURIER/Photo by Melissa Chan Terrace franchisees look to invest BY MELISSA CHAN Terrace on the Park operators want to upgrade the interior and exterior of the facility, and in order to do that, are looking to get a new lease on the popular and historic catering hall in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Terrace on the Park’s contract with the city’s Parks Department expires next March, officials said. The department has issued a new Request for Proposals (RFP). “While the current concessionaire has invested more than $8 million in capital improvements, exceeding the requirements of their license agreement, it is clear that additional infrastructure investments are needed,” a Parks spokesperson said. George Makkos, co-owner of Terrace on the Park, said they have invested $12 million so far to better the catering hall. But the 100,000-square-foot building needs “millions” of dollars more in capital improvements which cannot be done under the looming lease expiration date, Makkos said. “Given the size and complexity of the building, the money that we will need to spend will never be recovered in the time, in the lease that we have left,” he said. Makkos said he and co-owner Jimmy Kaloidis want to retain and upgrade the catering hall. “We’re trying to extend the lease for a new term so we can spend what’s needed and a lot more to bring the building to a state which is sufficient so it can compete in the wedding and corporate banquet business as it should,” he said. The city must launch a procedural public bidding process. “It’s a huge building. Everything becomes a big deal,” Makkos said. “A simple remodeling could cost a million dollars.” The proposal process is competitive but open to any entities, including the current concessionaire, the Parks Department said. 18 cryder point courier | JULY/AUGUST 2013 | WWW.QUEENSCOURIER.COM Terrace on the Park was built for the 1964 World’s Fair and has been a catering hall for nearly 50 years. The current contract was scheduled to expire in March 2020 but was amended to expire in March 2014, officials said. A Parks Department spokesperson said the change is not related to any development proposals at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. BY MELISSA CHAN Getting to and from a Whitestone playground is no walk in the park, some residents say. The lack of a crosswalk or traffic controls at the 3rd Avenue and 147th Street entrance to Francis Lewis Park is dangerous to pedestrians, said Malba Civic Association president Alfredo Centola. “It’s a beautiful park,” Centola said. “These poor kids, with their parents, whenever they come to the park to play, they have to take their lives in their hands.” Most residents must cross threeway traffic to enter and leave the park, located at the edge of the East River, since the majority of homes in the area lie across 147th Street. Irene Rama of Whitestone said sometimes she and her kids are forced to stop in the middle of the street to avoid an oncoming car even after stopping to look in every direction beforehand. Residents say a piece of property, bordered by jutting construction boards, that is being developed directly next to the park impairs the vision of pedestrians trying to cross. “It’s a long stretch,” said Rama. “There are kids running all the time. There should be something here. It’s a huge intersection.” Mark Felber, 67, who lives down the street from the park, said he would like to see better traffic controls. “This is a popular street,” he said. “I have grandkids. They run over there and there’s no stop sign.” There were no injuries at the intersection in question between 2007 and 2011, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) said. But the department said there were four serious ones from car accidents, not involving pedestrians, during that period at 3rd Avenue and the westbound Whitestone service road. “While DOT has not received any recent requests related to this location, the agency will study the applicability of a stop sign or other traffic controls at 3rd Avenue and 147th Street as well as the feasibility of speed bumps in the area,” the spokesperson said. Centola said he has sent the DOT a letter of complaint every 18 months since 2005. Queens Borough Commissioner Maura McCarthy mailed the civic leader a response in 2011 saying the department completed an analysis and determined “Multi-Way Stop controls are not recommended at this time.” “Factors such as vehicular and pedestrian volumes, vehicular speeds, visibility and signal spacing were all taken into consideration in making our determination,” the correspondence reads. Shortly after the letter, the city installed one pedestrian crossing sign in front of the park, but it only faces one direction of traffic. Centola said the sign is also too high for drivers to see. “At this point, I’m speechless and dumbfounded,” he said. “The DOT is once again being negligent and refusing to take care of the issues.” THE COURIER/File photo The lease for Terrace on the Parkwill be up for bidding soon.


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