CB 11 Receives Application for Former Scobee Diner Site

Community Board 11 has received an application for the construction of a retail and community facility at the Scobee Diner site in Little Neck, the board’s district manager said.

The building on Northern Boulevard that previously housed the popular diner has been vacant since the eatery closed in November 2010.

Susan Seinfeld, CB 11’s district manager, said the board has received an application from Manhattan’s LION BEE Equities to demolish the Scobee building and replace it with two-story building with retail on its first floor and a community facility on the second floor.

“People have been asking what has been going on there for a long time,” Seinfeld said. “I told the board and civic groups and a couple people said it was too bad another diner was not going in there.”

The board will not hear the application until its March meeting.

Seinfeld said it was unclear what type of retail store the developer was planning for the first floor. A community facility for the second floor could be anything from a day care center to a medical office.

The applicant would need to go to the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals for a variance because the Scobee property is split up between three different zoning districts.

“They would have to get a variance to allow the commercial overlay in a residential zone,” Seinfeld said.

The Scobee had been a popular diner for more than 50 years in Little Neck. Its owner, Harry Pallas, said the eatery was shuttered due to the economic downturn of the past several years.