They’re moving everything — and the kitchen sink!
Developers will down the Parkside Memorial Chapels and the boarded-up Midas Muffler Shop on Flatbush Avenue near Avenue V to make room for Raymour and Flanigan furniture store, which is moving in from across the street. The news put to bed locals’ fears that the city would build a homeless shelter on the site, one resident said.
“We anticipated this could be a horror show,” said James Buchanan during a Community Board 18 meeting on March 16. “We would have this big lot now, which is probably the largest lot in Marine Park, that would be available, and we didn’t know if the city was going to come down and say ‘We’re putting up homeless housing or halfway houses.’ ”
Instead, the retail furniture chain will move across Avenue V — from 2544 Flatbush Ave. to 2576 Flatbush Ave., Buchanan said.
Raymour and Flanigan bought the Midas building last fall. It hasn’t yet closed the deal with Parkside Memorial Chapels, but both parties have signed a contract that will hand over the entire lot to the furniture chain by 2017, city records show.
It’s not clear what will happen to Raymour and Flanigan’s current building, which is about the size of five basketball courts.
Raymour and Flanigan leases the space, and officials there do not know what will come of the storefront, a spokeswoman said.
The land is zoned for car lots, gas stations, and other commercial uses, city records show. Developers would need a pass from the city to erect housing, records show.
Officials could not confirm when the furnishing store will reopen in its new location.
And the funeral home isn’t closing up shop either, it’s just moving up Flatbush Avenue to the corner of Alton Place — an opportunity Parkside Memorial Chapel just couldn’t pass up, its president said.
“Raymour and Flanigan made us an offer we couldn’t refuse,” said Ed Goldstein, who plans to re-open the funeral home this Spring.
“It’s a matter of dollars and cents.”
