Riverdale Review, July 7, 2011

Page 1

Riverdale’s ONLY Locally Owned Newspaper!

Volume XVIII • Number 30 • July 7 - 13, 2011 •

FREE!

From small boxes of cookies to ‘big boxes’ of discounts? By BRENDAN McHUGH The stale taste of an empty Stella D’oro factory may be starting to disappear. A listing for “Riverdale Crossing” on the Ripco Real Estate website shows a pylon for the Broadway and West 238th Street building with “Wholesale Club” on it, along with four smaller spots each labeled “Tenant.” The “Wholesale Club” sign is red and white, the same colors as BJ’s, a company that has been rumored to be interested in the Riverdale-Kingsbridge area for years, including the West 230th Street shopping center that has once again been delayed. According to the brochure on the real estate company’s website, the wholesale club will take up about 96,500 square feet of the 115,000-square-foot building, most of it below grade. Representatives for Ripco did not return messages for comment. The highlights on the webpage include four available spaces ranging from 2,900 square feet to just over 20,000 square feet, and all the spaces are divisible. The total retail space available for lease is 34,785 square feet. There are also 485 spaces of surface and rooftop parking. Rumors have been circulating that the new owners may try to use some of the space as a storage facility and not as a retail space. With a U-Haul center on West 230th Street, just the thought of another nonretail space has angered local community leaders, but it is possible that both will be able to coexist in the building.

The former Stella D’Oro plant, empty for nearly two years, may soon be home to a popular “big box” store. “Self-storage doesn’t bring in jobs or increase commerce in the community,” Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said. “If that were it, I would be disappointed.” “A year ago, a company that did self-

storage was going to buy it,” he added. “But then another person said they’re bringing a BJ’s in. I would have personally preferred a mall with a number of stores, but I thought BJ’s would be perfectly fine.”

Ed. Dept. confirms investigation of P.S. 24 principal By MIAWLING LAM The principal at P.S. 24 is under investigation by the Department of Education following accusations that she misused donated funds and signed off on possibly fraudulent timesheets. A probe into Dr. Donna Connelly that

P.S. 24 principal Donna Connelly

began early last month is believed to be examining alleged hiring improprieties and claims she warehoused a key leadership position for nearly two years in violation of personnel procedures. The case came to light after the Riverdale Review received a tip-off from a person at the school on June 28, a couple of days before the end of the school year. The source said it appeared that Connelly was complicit in the school’s acting assistant principal Emanuele Verdi’s pocketing extra money. It is alleged that five teachers saw Verdi’s timesheets two weeks ago and noticed an anomaly suggesting he was collecting extra money for school bus pickups. What sparked the scrutiny is that under city guidelines, Verdi may have usurped the authority and income from carrying out this task, taking it from a teacher who obtained the position after it was posted as per regulations. Connelly would have had

to approve all documents, and if there is a legal problem, it is her responsibility. A Department of Education spokeswoman refused to answer a series of questions relating to the allegations but confirmed that an investigation was being conducted. “There is an active investigation based on allegations we received a couple weeks ago,” she said. Richard J. Condon, special commissioner of investigation for the New York City public schools, is apparently not involved in the probe, which is being conducted internally at the Department of Education. The Review understands the city is also looking into the possible illegal warehousing of the position of assistant principal. Connelly left the role unfilled for nearly two years, prompting critics to suggest that she was waiting for her close friend Verdi to complete the required coursework so he could fill the post. Continued on Page 11

Katherine Broihier, district manager for the Kingsbridge Business Improvement District, said she believes the cost of the building was over $20 million, but until any of the deals are made official, she has a hard time listening to rumors. “Lowe’s was looking in this area before the economy crashed. But right now, no one is doing grand openings,” she said, referring to yet another old rumor with the hardware and housewares company. Now that Ceruzzi Holdings was unable to close on the proposed shopping mall on 230th and Broadway, retailers may look to the Stella D’oro factory for their ticket into the area. “I would like to see a real shopping center that would benefit our community and The Bronx as a whole—the same type of stores as 230th,” Dinowitz said. “A Best Buy, Bed Bath and Beyond—things like that would thrive in our community.” A documentary film about the 2009 closing of Stella D’oro is now airing on HBO2. It focuses on the workers’ strike and on how many of the 138 people who baked the Italian cookies and breadsticks are still unemployed. Faced with escalating costs, the owners of Stella D’Oro abandoned the business which was bought by a North Carolina company.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.