City inspectors again slapped the owner of Kings Plaza Shopping Center with violations for illegally storing cars in its parking garage, just four months after issuing another fine for the same offense.
The Friday violations came after agency officials found about 500 cars without license plates or registration stickers parked on the fourth and fifth floors of the garage — roughly 50 more vehicles than they found during their inspection last October, which followed an alleged arson attack that injured 21 people and destroyed more than a hundred cars the month before.
The parking garage’s certificate of occupancy only allows for “accessory parking” for the mall — meaning spots for shoppers and mall employees, but not for vehicle storage. The mall’s owner, Brooklyn Kings Plaza LLC, could face a maximum fine of $25,000 for the repeat offense, according to a Department of Buildings spokesman, who asked not to be named because the fines are determined by a separate city agency, the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings.
In October, the trials office served the Kings Plaza owner with a $1,250 fine in for leasing the parking spaces out to local car dealerships.
A hearing for that charge would have taken place on Dec. 31, 2018, but a rep for the mall’s owner asked to reschedule the event to April 1 of this year, which the office granted, according to its spokeswoman Marisa Senigo.
And Kings Plaza honchos aren’t the only ones illegally storing
cars in the area.
City inspectors on Friday issued a similar violation to the owner of a parking lot outside the former Toys “R” Us store on Flatbush Avenue near the Belt Parkway — just down the road from Kings Plaza — for storing 50 cars without license plates or registration stickers.
The owner of that property, Long Island-based company MMC Brooklyn LLC, could face a fine of up to $6,250 for illegal storage of the cars inside of a commercial zoning district, according to the Buildings Department spokesman.
