BJS WHOLESALE CLUB
The first step in the approval process to have BJ's Wholesale Club built in Mariners Harbor will occur on Tuesday night with a public meeting about the project. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
A map displaying the location of the new BJ's Wholesale Club. (Courtesy of Albert Krull)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The first step in the approval process to have BJ's Wholesale Club built in Mariners Harbor will occur on Tuesday night with a public meeting about the project.
The plan to open a BJ's Wholesale Club on a 28-acre L-shaped lot behind United Cerebral Palsy at 2324 Forest Ave. -- which also includes two other large-scale commercial structures and a "fueling facility" -- will be presented at a public scoping session on Tuesday, Sept. 27, at 6 p.m. at the 121 Police Precinct in Graniteville.
"This is the first step in the process with City Planning. We will give a presentation and then the public has time to respond with comments to City Planning," said Albert J. Krull, project coordinator for the development.
"We are hoping to be certified at the end of the year with the ULURP (Uniformed Land Use Review Procedure), so we can start that magical seven-month clock," said Krull, referring to the usual time period for the city-mandated process.
Site plan for new BJ's Wholesale Club. (Courtesy of Albert Krull)
BJ's Wholesale Club has signed a lease to occupy 90,000-square feet of an approximately 190,000-square-foot building, and operate a gas station on the site, said Krull, noting his company, the Englewood, N.J.-based Treeco is the consultant and developer handling the project for the owner, the Manhattan-based Josifa LLC.
The BJ's service station will be erected at the corner of Forest Avenue and North Morrow Avenue, said Krull.
He noted that the plan also calls for another supermarket, but that's not set in stone.
"We are not sure we are going to end up with a supermarket. We just made that provision for the review and approvals process because it's the most onerous at meeting the standards," said Krull.
TIMEFRAME FOR WORK
Krull said he hopes to have shovels in the ground by this time next year -- but that's being "cautiously optimistic" -- and then the store would open one year to 14 months after that.
Essentially, the store could be open in two years time.
"In addition to the main building, there will be potentially two 'pad sites,' closer to Forest Avenue. One building could be 14,500 square feet and another at 15,400 square feet," he said, noting the final design of buildings could be smaller or larger based on tenants' needs.
The property, which touches both Forest and South avenues, would include more than 840 parking spaces, he said.
He noted the site includes about six acres of mapped wetlands that will be protected on the southern portion of the site. There will also be additional plantings as part of the development.
Headquartered in Westborough, Mass., BJ's Wholesale Club Inc. operates 213 clubs nationwide, eight of which are in New York City. The closest BJ's clubs to Staten Island are in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, Jersey City, N.J., and Linden, N.J.
BJ's main Island-based competition would be Costco-Price Club warehouse, which opened on Richmond Avenue in New Springville in 1995.
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