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Jan. 18-24, 2019 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
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Petition to bring Target to Middle Village grows
BY MARK HALLUM
A Maspeth woman
calling on Target to take
over a space in a Middle
Village shopping center left
vacant by both Kmart and
Toys “R” Us has gathered a
grand total of 177 signatures
on a change.org petition.
Charlene Stubbs, in
her petition to Target CEO
Brian Cornell, believes
that a big box store would
fit well at the Metropolitan
Avenue location. Rentar
Development, which owns
the site, recently had its
application to build two new
truck loading bays in order
to entice new tenants shot
down at a Jan. 9 Community
Board 5 meeting.
“We do not have a Target
in our community board,
which consists of Maspeth
Middle Village Ridgewood and
Glendale. We have to go out of
the neighborhood to shop at
one. We lost KMart there in
October, so now we have to go
out of our area to buy clothes
books and toys, which most
Targets I have been to have a
wide selection,” Stubbs wrote.
“There are so many houses
within walking distance
of this store. I can not see a
Target failing at this location.
Please consider opening
Target here.”
In the petition, Stubbs
Restaurateur, author and celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich (c.) with the attendees of the Istrian
Cultural event hosted in Astoria. Bastianich spoke with attendees about her birth in Pula, Istria
in 1947, her family’s escape to Trieste, Italy, the family’s two years in a refugee camp and
subsequent migration to the United States, and the opening of her first restaurant, Buonavia, in
Forest Hills. Photo by Bruce Adler
options for people in the area
are far and few between ranging
between Western Beef at 47-05
Metropolitan Ave. and C-Town
at 75-43 Metropolitan Ave.
Dennis Ratner, president
of Rentar Development, told
TimesLedger the shopping
center has become a hard sell
in recent years as brick-andmortar
retailers are forced
downsize both the size and
number of their stores and
the only hope for the company
is to subdivide the space and
offer more loading bays.
Ratner said he had been
argued that grocery store
in talks with multiple
Vol. 7 No. 3 52 total pages
retailers but did not offer
any names since there are
not yet any bites.
At the Community Board
5 meeting, Felice Bassin
from Rentar even pointed
out that Target itself is going
with small outlet space as
the online market continues
to heat up, giving physical
big box facilities a run for
their money.
Rentar had put in
an application with
the city Department of
Transportation for a curbcut
and a driveway for two
additional unloading bays
along Metropolitan Avenue
that would facilitate the
subdivision of the 145,000
square foot space formerly
occupied by Kmart and sweeten
the deal for smaller retailers.
Rentar is skeptical any
companies that take a
subdivided retail space would
be willing to share the current
eight unloading bays among
the other tenants.
There are concerns that
with trucks loading in the
front of the building, massive
amounts of foot traffic from
arriving M trains and students
from Christ the King High
School would pose a hazard.
So, with less than 24
hours between the proposal
at the Jan. 9 Board 5 meeting
and the deadline for DOT to
hear the advisory decision,
the community board voted
unanimously against Rentar’s
proposal, claiming it would
need more time to further
study the plans.
Reach reporter Mark
Hallum by e-mail at mhallum@
schnepsmedia.com or by phone
at (718) 260–4564.
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