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Parks Department Scraps Plans for Cafe at Midland Beach

By Nicholas Rizzi | February 27, 2015 2:22pm
 The Parks Department scrapped plans to build a "high quality" cafe at the Midland Beach Splaza.
The Parks Department scrapped plans to build a "high quality" cafe at the Midland Beach Splaza.
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DNAinfo/Nicholas Rizzi

MIDLAND BEACH — The Parks Department has scrapped plans to open a cafe at Midland Beach to replace a decades old diner that was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy saying it might conflict with plans for a levee wall.

Tara Kiernan, spokeswoman for the Parks Department, said the city dropped the proposal to build the cafe at the Midland Beach Splaza to avoid conflict with the Army Corps of Engineers' plans to build a levee wall on the East Shore of Staten Island.

"As a plan comes together for the levee wall, we chose to hold the [request for proposals] for the snack stand to ensure it works well with the Army Corps' plans, which will impact the surrounding areas," Kiernan said in an email.

The story was first reported by NY1.

The original RFP put out by Parks in October called for plans to build the cafe near the intersection of Father Capodanno Boulevard and Seaview Avenue to replace the 80-year-old Victory Diner.

The Victory Diner, originally at 1781 Richmond Rd., closed in 2007 and was set to be demolished. The diner was saved by island groups, but was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, Parks said.

Salvageable material from the diner — which had $6.2 million allotted to it by former Borough President James Molinaro in 2012 — was put into a container but during Sandy the frame and the container collided and caused severe damage, Parks said.

Draft plans for the Army Corps levee will be available for public review sometime in the Spring, Kiernan said.