Serving New Hyde Park, North New Hyde Park, Herricks, Garden City Park, Manhasset Hills, North Hills, Floral Park
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Friday, december 25, 2015
vol. 64, no. 52
N E W H Y D E PA R K TO
GUIDE ing New Year’s Din
2015 • decemb er 25, tions special section / litmor publica a blank slate media
NeW year’s DiNiNG GUiDe
tWeeDy, NicoLeLLo kaiMaN eyeD cLasH oVer casiNo For LiPa ceo
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ritz Carlton changes questioned in n. Hills Developer, mayor disagree on apartment count By N o a H M a N s k a r The North Hills Board of Trustees and the developers of a luxury condominium complex there are not seeing eyeto-eye on numbers. The board on Wednesday delayed a decision on whether to let RXR Realty combine several smaller units at its Ritz Carlton Residences into fewer, larger condos, after Mayor Marvin Natiss said the changes were a way the developer could circumvent the limit of 244 units. “Your client has been here 10 times, and 20 times has been told no more than 244,” Natiss told Anthony Guardino,
Twenty-six fifth- and sixth-grade singers from the Hillside Grade School in the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park school district performed a holiday concert at the Bristal Assisted Living in North Hills on Dec. 17. Under the direction of Sharon Pesenti, the chorus entertained residents with their concert repertoire and a medley of holiday songs. The audience joined in for a rendition of “Jingle Bells.”
RXR’s attorney, Wednesday night. That number has stood since 2006, when the board first approved RXR’s plan for five luxury condo buildings at the 17-acre site on New Hyde Park Road near the Long Island Expressway Service Road, managed by hotelier Ritz Carlton. RXR’s amended plans for the first two buildings combines 28 of 124 individual condos into 14 larger ones, for a new total of 110 units. The developer plans to add the extra 14 to the fifth building in the project’s second phase, keeping the total at 244, Guardino said.
RXR First Vice President Frank Haftel said the board allowed for combined condos to count as a single unit in 2009, when it approved the firm’s plan to reduce the average unit size. Counting them as one also makes sense under the village code, Haftel and Guardino said, which says a “dwelling unit” ought to be “intended, designed and built for use by one family.” “All we’re saying is let’s not change things around,” Haftel said in an interview. “Let’s just stick with what we agreed to do.” But Natiss said the board Continued on Page 52
Police seek suspects in pair of bank robberies GCP, North NHP banks hit by armed, masked robber By N o a H MaNskar
The first happened around 9:12 a.m. Dec. 17, police said, when a man in his 20s showed Police are seeking similar a silver handgun at the TD culprits in a pair of armed rob- Bank at 110 Hillside Ave. and beries in a three-day period at demanded money. He then ran south on N. two banks about three miles 2nd Avenue with an unknown apart.
amount of cash. Five or six employees were in the bank during the robbery, police said, but no one was hurt. The second came at 9:05 a.m. Dec. 19 in Garden City Continued on Page 52
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