Former Smithville Café Location Remains Vacant

The former site of the Smithville Café building, located at the intersection of Bellmore Avenue and Bellmore Road, has been sitting unused in its fenced-in lot for several years.

According to Andrew Finkelstein of A.J. Finkelstein Reality, the official representative of the property’s current owner, his client is currently engaged in aggressively marketing the lot to all comers and hopes to sell it soon.

“It’s available for sale and/or for rent,” he said. “The property is a triangular piece, approximately 9,000 square feet, set on a corner. There is also a lot across the street, which can be used for parking or other purposes. That one is approximately 4,000 square feet.”

The last business to inhabit the Smithville Café location, Laura’s BBQ, went out of business several years ago, leaving the building empty for an extended period. Then, about two years ago, vandals caused irreparable damage to the structure, according to Finkelstein.

“What happened is that a bunch of kids got into the building and created a fire,” he said. “So, we had to tear the building down. It wasn’t safe leaving it that way.”

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Southgate Commercial Real Estate Broker Mick Ferra, whose office is situated across the street from the lot, said that changing times might make using the property for commercial purposes more difficult than in the past.

“If you went to build on the property now, you’d have to adhere to the new building codes,” he said. “This means you have certain setbacks from each of the roads on either side. Before, it was an old building that was built road-to-road, but you could never do the same thing anymore. It’s an unusually-shaped property, so it will have unusual setback laws...perhaps as much as ten for 15 feet from each road.”

Ferra said that the former Smithville Café building had a lot of history behind it, before it met its untimely demise at the hands of arsonists.

“It was a house that the owners extended a couple of different ways into a restaurant...it was there for over a hundred years,” he said. “However, over the years, the building became old and decrepit, and it was on the market for several years before the fire...the fire was probably the best thing, since nobody would have bought it the way that it was, anyway.”

If you’re interested in this property, you can contact A.J. Finkelstein Reality at 516-428-0935.

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