GerritsenBeach.net

Via NY Daily News

A hot-sheet hotel in Sheepshead Bay could become two name-brand hotels - including a new Marriott - after community opposition convinced the developer to scrap plans to build luxury condos there.

The Golden Gate Motor Inn, which since the 1960s has drawn both lawful travelers and riffraff, could be turned into a Fairfield Inn or a Marriott, said developer Harshad Patel, who says both chains and others have expressed interest.

“As a developer, we would like to do residential, but we know people in the neighborhood don’t want residential, so we are looking at middle and high-end hotels,” Patel said.

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If you were around the golden gate last night there was a large federal and very large NYPD presence searching the area around the golden gate. If you have more info please post it here.

Update Via NY Post:March 5, 2008 — A suspect wanted for a multimillion-dollar identity fraud managed to elude a massive FBI and NYPD dragnet in Brooklyn last night.

The unidentified man is the subject of a sealed federal complaint, an FBI spokesman said. Police sources said he was wanted for a fraud operation that netted as much as $30 million. A second suspect was detained, but had not been charged, the FBI said.

The subject of the manhunt first escaped his chasers on foot from the Golden Gate Motel in Sheepshead Bay at around 7 p.m., sources said.

The police operation quickly shifted to a nearby home on East 28th Street.

They surrounded the two-story house and went in through a back door at around 10:30 p.m., but the search was fruitless.

The FBI did not release the suspect’s description

Via SBPBC Civic

So that Golden Gate meeting happened and it was to see what community leaders would want to see developed on the property. A few ideas were thrown about at that meeting including:

• A 350 unit apartment building
• A supermarket

However, the community leaders that attended were against any type of residential development. The consensus at the meeting was that the community would support a zoning change of C8-2, which would restrict all residential uses, and would allow the developer to build as large of a hotel as possible. Some estimates believe that a hotel could be between 12 to 20 stories and accommodate up to 200 rooms. It was also suggested that Banquet and Summer recreational facilities should be built and should be available to the community.

Despite the promises of a non-residential area, the owners have already been pre-certified by the Department of City Planning to apply for a change of zoning that would enable the owners to build a residential complex up to 350 units.

As a correction we were invited but could not attend.

Brooklyn Borough President Markowitz might be looking to hold a small private meeting with the heads of both the SB/PBCA and the Bay Improvement Group regarding plans for the Golden Gate Inn, located on the corner of Knapp St. and Shore Pkwy. According to sources, Markowitz and his staff are very anxious to set up the meeting.

Rumor is that the plans include a deal with a major hotel company purchasing the land and building both a larger hotel and an apartment building.

Some whispers have even said low to middle-income housing on the site. According to sources, the meeting is supposed to be one-on-one-on-one with the heads of the organization, with others strictly prohibited.

Word of organizing this meeting also apparently got back to Senator Marty Golden. According to multiple sources, Golden was told that the meeting was to get the “feelings of the community” regarding possible projects, but at least one source says that the Senator did not believe that a meeting with two people would adequately express the “feelings of the community.” Golden also supposedly told Markowitz that he wants to be included in any discussion regarding the Golden Gate Inn, which is in his district.

I guess no one from the Property Owners or GBCares was invited because we aren’t included in anything…ever. With that said and completely jumping topics, Green Streets are coming whether we like it or not. If we had a community as strong as lets say Manhattan Beach, we would get @#$% done!

Ive said it before:

Although there is something comforting about the small-town feeling of Gerritsen Beach, we are not an island. We are part of a larger community in one of the biggest cities in the world. We are tax-paying, voting citizens and we NEED representation in the outside world or we will be forgotten about.