Frozen Cup 1950-2009

From the Times Ledger:

Before the dust from the demolition of a Bellerose icon settled, civic leaders complained that the developers of a controversial proposed hotel at the former Frozen Cup site are not living up to their promise of being good neighbors.

As the Bellerose ice cream shop was being demolished last Thursday, workers for the developers tore out bushes from a home adjacent to the site.

“They just cut them all on my driveway,” said 249th Street homeowner Diana Weiss, who claimed one of the workers “was very abrupt and he just said he was cutting them down because it was on his property.”

The demolition was staged as the investors had yet to receive approval from the city Department of Buildings to construct the hotel.

The agency disapproved plans on Jan. 14 because they exceeded floor−area ratio requirements and there were problems involving compliance with the energy code, according to a city Department of Buildings spokeswoman.

Times makes Frozen Cup story about race

From the NY Times:

While New York is often praised as a gorgeous mosaic, ethnic tensions are hardly unknown in the city, especially in neighborhoods that undergo rapid demographic shifts. Sometimes tensions are expressed overtly; other times, they lurk under the surface, revealing themselves in conversations that can be heard in local bars and living rooms.

That is the case in Bellerose.

Opponents of the planned Days Inn insist that their primary concern is not the race of the hotel entrepreneurs but the community’s quality of life. Still, many of what are seen as unwanted changes have arrived with the South Asian immigrants, a fact that invariably comes up in discussions about the fate of the Frozen Cup.

Here I was concerned that the Times might actually go a week without Archie Bunkerizing Queens. The way this and other papers play it is that if the endangered building is in Manhattan, the desire to save it indicates neighborhood pride and a sense of history. If people in Queens want to save a building, it must be because they hate immigrants.

Frozen Cup in its final days?

From the Queens Chronicle:

Despite appeals to city agencies and officials by Bellerose residents, it looks like the beloved Frozen Cup ice cream on Jericho Turnpike stand will soon be demolished.

Developers, who want to turn the site into a three-story hotel, have applied for a demolition permit. The permit is still in the processing stage by the Department of Buildings, but it could be just a matter of time before it’s issued.

“Once we get it, we will tear down the Frozen Cup,” said Harshed Patel, one of the developers.

In a Jan. 1 letter to DOB Commissioner Robert LiMandri, Augugliaro discussed her concerns about a hotel that will have visitors staying there, 24 hours, seven days a week. “There are fears that should this hotel not be successful, it will become vacant or be turned into a Section 8 facility,” she wrote.

Augugliaro told the Queens Chronicle that she also has fears the planned hotel could become a “hot sheet” facility for short-term stays. Patel denies that will happen.

“People are afraid of hanky panky,” he said. “We are not in that business.”

The developer also disputes that the area is over-saturated with hotels. His building would house 40 to 42 rooms and have up to 12 parking spaces. “We have other hotels in Queens and still see a need for more,” he said. “People want something new to stay in.”

(Guess word of the hotel crash hasn't reached the other end of Queens yet.)