Photo: QueensPost
July 11, 2013 By Christian Murray
The owner of the Family Entertainment Center is not closing and has plans to stay in the building for several years.
Phil Ahan, who owns Family Entertainment (located at the corner of 48th Street and Barnett Ave.) signed a 5 year lease with the owner of the building back in May, and was dumbfounded when he saw the building was listed for sale by Greiner Maltz — and that it would be vacant by the end of the year.
The Sunnyside Post ran a story based on the listing. It was unable to reach Ahan at the time, despite leaving a message.
Ahan, who received a flood of calls from customers about the mistaken closure, said he promptly called the owner to find out what was going on. In an e-mail to the owner he wrote: “I would appreciate you calling him [the Sunnyside Post] and letting him know that we are not closing…and that the building is not being sold.”
The owner, Sydney Shore, was also caught by surprise, claiming he didn’t place the listing with Greiner Meltz. He said that the building was not for sale and that the plan was to lease the top floor.
Swain Weiner, the broker for Greiner Maltz, apologized for the mix up. “Hey, sorry…I messed up on this one.”
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27 Comments
Weiner is up to his old shenanigans again with this property. Be advised!
At what point did weiner cross the stupidty line and put up a fictious listing. This guy is a joke. You’ve been warned.
This place is a dump.. im sad it will be there fo 5 moe years.. Try cleaning it up..
@Ramrod,
I’m not in the real estate business. It’s a play on words.
As far as your screen name goes….
You did not mention me by name–that was O’shea–but since I am the only real estate broker on the board, your contention that real estate professionals should not serve on the board certainly is directed at me, if only by inference. My reference to lawyers and liquor licenses is that SLA applications come before the board.
The law is very clear–if an item comes before the board which presents a conflict of interest to a board member, he/she must recuse him/herself from voting.
I should also say that the board’s decisions are advisory and I am one of fifty board members. Although I like to feel my vote counts, I don’t have any illusions of it having a major impact on the various issues that come before the board. My influence, where it exists, has been on environmental issues due to my position as chair of the Environmental Committee and consequent participation on the various local environmental organizations, such as the Queens Solid Waste Advisory Board, Newtown Creek Alliance, Newtown Creek Brownfields Opportunity Area Advisory Board and others.
Weiner doesn’t own anything and what he has done is borderline unethical… He has an agenda to make a quick buck in this community and he should be ashamed of himself.
@Surreal estate agent You take much too tight a reading of your own words. Perhaps you did not mean to imply Dorothy Moorehead was crooked, but everyone else who read it as if your accusations were aimed at her.
So, the lady doth not protest too much, methinks. You backpedal to quickly, methinks.
And you seem to be in the business yourself, with the pseudonym you use. Perhaps you are trying to besmirch the reputation of a strong competitor. Not saying you are, but it would be a strong motive for such an attack.
@Dorothy
I never mentioned you. I stated that I don’t think anyone in the local real-estate business should be on the board. Nor did I make any accusations about misbehavior, just the potential for it. Sorry but it’s not all about you.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Lawyers and liquor licenses? Not sure what the connection is there but I’m sure it makes sense to you.
There’s a big difference between a homeowner or co-op shareholder who simply owns their own property and someone who makes their living selling many properties.
@ Surreal estate agent. So there should not be a doctor or nurse on the board because the board deals with provision of health services? Or teachers because the board deals with requesting new schools and siting of schools? Or lawyers because the board deals with liquor licenses? Co-op and condo owners and homeowners? Board decisions could effect their properties. Who does that leave? Sorry but you are dead wrong on this issue. Please inform yourself on how the board works before posting further innuendos about me. Better yet, come to a board meeting. Except for September when the usual meeting date conflicts with the Jewish holidays, the board meets on the first Thursday of the month at 7 at Sunnyside Community Setvices. The fall meetings are particularly important because the board sets the capital and expense budgets then.
Jimmy Van Bramer refuses to further support 5ptz. Demolition to continue.
As per LICpost “Exclusive”
LICpost has a small fraction of readers compared to SunnysidePost.
http://licpost.com/2013/07/12/exclusive-van-bramer-dismisses-plans-to-save-5-pointz-building-2/
This man is not representing his constituents.
It’s not unreasonable to think that people in the real-estate business should not be on the community board. They are making decisions that affect the local real-estate market even if a particular property they deal with is not involved in any one particular decision. To say there is no conflict of interest is to ignore reality.
Even if a member is not taking advantage of their position, there is too much potential for corruption. Putting the foxes in charge of the hen house is not a good idea.
Correction. I’ve served on CB2 for twenty years.
@ O’shea. I do not, in fact cannot, vote on issues where there is a conflict of interest–it is explicitly forbidden by law. In the ten years I have served on CB2, I have voted on exactly two issues related to real estate. They were the re-zoning of Sunnyside and Woodside which down-zoned the side streets and up-zoned Queens Boulevard and Greenpoint Avenue. With my colleagues on the board I was concerned about the preservation of those ocommunities. (Prior to the re-zoning, a 6-story building could be built anywhere, including mid-block, as of right and I had seen firsthand on 36th Street in Astoria where a single building had destroyed the entire block.) The other vote was last month when the board voted unanimously to decline the 5-Pointz development project. If you care to go to the community board to hear the tape of the meeting, you will hear me question the attorney for the developer if the developer would make a commitment to including affordable housing. (He wouldn’t, at least at that time. He has since met with the Land Use Committee and is more open to that and other community amenities. See LICpost.com for further info.)
@ Leave Dorothy alone. Thank you for your kind comments. I have to correct one thing. I lived in 3 different neighborhoods in Manhattan, Brooklyn Heights, Flushing and Rego Park before finding Sunnyside. So I haven’t lived here all my life but will for the rest of it!
How do you mess up on getting a listing?
A sigh of relief can be heard all over Sunnyside and environs!
They can’t leave, there’s still more drugs to sell !
As the president of Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce, Swain Weiner was just too eager to get a commission and favours from the businesses he places. Van Bramer should hear of this conflict of interest. Here’s his number just in case you don’t have it on speed-dial: (718) 383-9566
i don’t know how these guys manage to stay open, every time i pass by here the place is dead.
The Chamber–in its entirety–should be run out of town immediately. We do not exist for their benefit. They are here to serve the community. People who think they have power often get that mixed up!
Dorothy has lived in this community her entire life and is highly respected.
Leave her alone…She is no Weiner!!
Most of the Sunnyside Chamber people like weiner don’t even live here. They just do business here. I guess I can see your point about some of them selling properties without thinking of us.
Just walked by there yesterday, someone should clean all of that mess down there! Garbage all over the place on the outside. Sunnydide Gardens Park on one side, all clean and tidy, and on the other side, quite the eyesore!
Swain weiner….where have we heard this name before?This guy wants to commercialize and sell sunnyside so badly he can’t help it. There is definitely a conflict of interest when people like weiner and Dorothy Moorehead sit on boards deciding issues that benefit their businesses.
They should at least fix the outside of this place up a bit
The sign says among other things, a bar and billiards. How is a bar and a pool room “family entertainment?”
What a mess.
Way to get my hopes up…
Swain Weiner is not only a real estate broker and president of Greiner-Maltz but is also the president of Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce… http://sunnysidepost.com/2012/06/12/sunnyside-chamber-of-commerce-names-new-president/