TO: Interested Parties, Media Outlets, and Press Contacts
FROM: Prospect Place Neighbors (prospectplaceneighbors.org)
RE: Liquor license sought by Kemistry LLC
DATE: April 23, 2012
SUBJECT: Prospect Place Neighbors Press Points for CB6 Meeting about Kemistry lounge
Please be aware that the next CB6 meeting will be held Monday April 23rd at 6:30 PM at Prospect Park YMCA (357 9th Street, 7th floor).Along with fellow neighborhood residents, Prospect Place Neighbors will be attending this meeting to discuss the liquor license sought by Kemistry LLC and represent the interests of the residents on and near the block bounded by Prospect Place, 6th Avenue, St. Marks Avenue, and Flatbush Avenue in Park Slope.
Headlines:
- Kemistry Lounge would be the largest nightclub in central Brooklyn with a capacity of 225 people on two floors with live performances, DJs, a full bar, and dancing.
- Kemistry Lounge would be the first establishment doing hostess-served hard alcohol bottle service in Park Slope and Prospect Heights, and only the second in all of Brooklyn.
- According to City Council member Melinda Katz: bottle service rastically increases patrons' incentive to drink intemperately and promotes dangerous levels of drunkenness' and facilitates 'service to minors.'
- Kemistry Lounge plans exit and large windows onto a quiet residential block of Prospect Place.
- Despite a commitment at the previous CB6 meeting to “brick up” the back entrance to Prospect Place to address resident concerns, Kemistry has now rescinded on this commitment.
- The proposed night club is within 500 feet of 8 establishments with full liquor licenses (http://lamp.sla.ny.gov/nysla/index.htm), is on a block with 6 storefronts of preschool facilities (www.eladiaskids.com and www.kinderstuffdaycare.com) and is completely out of scale with a residential neighborhood.
- Though we believed – and continue to believe – that Kemistry is simply not site appropriate, we honored the request by the CB6 to negotiate in good faith with Kemistry, facilitated by the North Flatbush BID, to seek a set of stipulations that could address the community’s most pressing concerns. After a frustrating experience attempting to negotiate reasonable terms including hours, bottle service and bricking up the rear window, our conviction remains that Kemistry is an incompatible business for the proposed location that refuses to negotiate with the community in good faith. We ask that Community Board 6 reject the Kemistry Lounge liquor license application.
Our email address is prospectplaceneighbors@gmail.com
Additionally, we have set up a web site - North Flatbush Neighbors (northflatbushneighbors.org), in order to organize and mobilize both our block as well as the residents of surrounding blocks in Prospect Heights and Park Slope that are concerned with out-of-scale and out-of-context new business development in our neighborhood. More information can be found at:
Our full press kit for tonight's CB6 meeting is available as a Google Doc here:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bx1KBc1ZE3oqNVlHUTBFTDB0SWM
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bx1KBc1ZE3oqNVlHUTBFTDB0SWM
