Soil testing truck spotted at Western Beef (Update: Determined to be unrelated to Western Beef)

Empire and Washington

Such trucks/surveys often precede the filing of plans and/or the sale of a property.

Precede?

Fixed!

I was wondering what those things were. I know it's way too early for the DOT to start that pedestrian plaza.

I was throwing around the idea at last week's gathering that people should petition Trader Joe's to come to the neighborhood.

Who is going to ask the operators who is paying for testing?

Maybe the Q can; it's on his side of Empire. (j/k)

I think someone better looking than the Q or myself will have the best chance of success.

I've always said that with just a bit of effort Western Beef could be a really first rate super market. I don't think they really wanted to try that, but I guess there's no chance at all now.

How sad. So it's pretty official that this is slated to become another apartment building? This is a great grocery store, and friendly staff.

It is presently zoned commercial, but a rezone of the area may occur.

If it were to become another apartment building, hopefully it will include a grocery store like the one being built on Lincoln Road.

This aerial photo gives viewers an idea of just how larger the site is.      The actual building is larger than its parking lot.     The lot is approximately equivalent in size to the Sea Crest site.  (huge!)

view along Empire




Note, it uses the 44 Empire Blvd address.

I saw a truck north of Empire this morning.

(Due to technical difficulties, I cannot upload the photo from my mobile device.)

That could mean that the soil testing is being conducted unrelated to Western Beef.

The DOT project?

Man, I feel as let down as I did once that Trader Joe's rumor was squashed.

I am thinking they might be prepping for a DEP or natural gas project.

As stated above, someone good looking needs to ask them.

From mugofmead. Note the McDonalds sign. Same truck.

I wonder they felt the need to put up a sign on Franklin Avenue that said "Road work ahead" when the work was on the sidewalk.

They might not stock a "Sidewalk Work Ahead" sign.

They could have posted something like this...

Have the school children walk up by the Checkers instead.

A Trader Joes sure would be nice!!

A Trader Joes sure would be nice!!

Maybe you can get a critical mass of people from here to ask Trader Joe's to consider opening up in the area.


I saw on DNA.info today that TJ's is moving into a vacant spot that used to be occupied by a traditional supermarket (Food Emporium) on 32nd and 3rd in Kips Bay. I believe that spot has been vacant for about a year, maybe less.

The soil truck is still on the sidewalk as of this evening. It's taking up a lot of real estate, although the sidewalk is still technically open.

surprised to see much excitement over the potential closing of WB.. this supermarket has a wide variety of fresh food at great prices serves a ton of people who have called this area home for a long time. i often see the elderly people from my building there shopping  
they should continue to work to improve it as they already have been doing.
seems like this might be a part of something larger anyway?

For better or worse, I predict this supermarket will be closed by 2019.

surprised to see much excitement over the potential closing of WB.. this supermarket has a wide variety of fresh food at great prices serves a ton of people who have called this area home for a long time. i often see the elderly people from my building there shopping  
they should continue to work to improve it as they already have been doing.
seems like this might be a part of something larger anyway?

Western Beef can improve the checkout line situation. I'm saying that as a long-term resident of the neighborhood. As a matter of fact, my family would use this market as a place of last resort (except for the fish place within the market. Now that I see that the fish market has changed hands, I won't use it anymore either.). We could use something better.

I think the hard thing about getting big chains like Trader Joe's in our neighborhoods is that they often base siting decisions on Census data, which becomes very out of date very quickly in a place that changes as fast as Brooklyn.

That also has the upside of leaving a big opening for local businesses to gain the first mover advantage. But such businesses usually can't offer the bargains that, say, Trader Joe's can, with their enormous bargaining power and economies of scale.

The truck has now moved to the other side of Franklin Avenue (by Checkers).

That drilling rig is the same one that DEP was using to test prospective locations for bioswales on Underhill in PH about a year ago.

Given that the testing seems to be on the sidewalk and happening on both sides of the street (and same contractor) - guessing that it's the next neighborhood being looked at for bioswales (small curbside gardens designed to absorb some stormwater runoff and prevent the sewers from being overwhelmed during heavy rainstorms):

http://gothamist.com/2014/11/10/bioswales.php

I think this is related:

Ugh. Sorry it did not rotate on its own.