wednesday at 2 bm much appreciated thank you very much all right have a good day all right
All right, number four.
So, Mr. Chair, we're now going to continue to complete the 2 p.m. list.
Is that correct?
What's that?
We're going back to the 2 p.m. list, right?
Correct. Yes. Thank you.
And we're going to be hearing Mr. Patterson.
m i 2026 002175 30 to 48 snyder avenue ronald patterson is the attorney mr patterson please
state your name and spell for the stenographer good afternoon ronald patterson p-a-t-t-e-r-s-o-n
right claire harrison law firm 1835 market street you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes i do mr patterson could you identify your client a relationship to
the property sure uh my client clients is first the the tenant is advanced auto parts stores
yep uh and the landlord is the goldenberg group which i represent both okay our vice chair has
a few questions good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance
of this hearing yes i have and do you waive the read no the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
yes i do all right thank you you can proceed with your case i just need to be promoted
are we putting bringing Mr. Patterson in Mr. Patterson has been allowed to promote thank you
yeah Enron I'm in thanks
this is goldberg shopping center dinner it's it's one of them yes i'm going to explain that thanks
okay so this application regards 30-48 snyder avenue uh there's a vacant tenant space in the
shopping center is snyder south owned by the goldenberg group here's an aerial photograph
here is i-95 surrounded by all these shopping centers here's the ikea shopping center with
lowe's that's a goldenberg shopping center snyder south which is what we're here for snyder north
over here is the target so it's surrounded by um commercial as you'll see zooming in on here's
snyder south snyder north targets back here this uh parcel here was the intellects parcel
which i'm working on we have we're converting that to a shopping center as well so it's it's
in a it's in a commercial area here or just tap these for purposes so this is the space
we're referring to this corner which used to be a right aid store
target acme lowe's ikea
So it's located, the particular store is on the corner of Snyder Avenue here and Front Street,
also surrounded by Water Street and Jackson Streets. It's space number one, it's about
10,425 square feet, last occupied a year ago after a Rite Aid vacated the store.
The proposal is for an advanced auto store which sells retail parts and accessories,
So it is a commercial retail store. We're located in a CA2 commercial auto-oriented zoning district, which allows for the largest shopping centers possible, like the IKEA shopping center.
And the use here falls under, not commercial, but it falls under an industrial use category code of personal vehicle equipment sales and services.
so it's also located in the cdo central delaware riverfront overlay which makes this use of
refusal advanced auto is a sales his retail sales there are no repairs such as body and fender and
painting which would be those uses that are typically included in that category
and this is probably one of the reasons why it's prohibited in the overlay yet again it's just
retail sales. I'll go through more of the store. Here's the old Rite Aid. There's a rear, which
we're keeping these murals, paintings that are on both sides. Swanson Street side.
It's the surrounding area. I'm sure we're well aware of them.
here's what the rebranding would look like within the shopping center
again keeping the artwork here and i'll further move down to the floor plan so
we can talk about that if there are any questions about that so they stated we're an overlay the
overlay is part of the language in the overlays says the purpose is to connect the public and
neighborhoods to the waterfront and promote sound economic development we believe this use as retail
is not inconsistent with the code or the area and fits within the character in the context of the
area as to the property it's a large space it's been hard to lease finding one large retail that
replace another but as you'll hear we this use actually has lesser density impacts in terms of
customer trips and cars than the Rite Aid did so with that said I want to introduce you to Ashton
Quinn if you could I sir could you please get close to the mic state your name is spelled for
the stenographer all right I'm going to relax here yep go ahead sorry name is Ashton Quinton
Ashton, A-S-H-T-O-N, Quinton, Q-U-I-N, T-I-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Thank you.
So, Ashton, you're familiar with this location?
And what's your position with Advanced Auto?
Construction Project Manager.
Again, you heard my testimony.
Would you agree it's true and accurate?
And I do adopt it as if it were your own?
And so just to reiterate, so it's a retail store?
Correct.
Right, no auto repairs?
No body fender, no painting?
Is there much to do there to convert the building?
No, it's an interior outfit.
Okay, and here's a floor plan.
I think I have some interior photos as well.
Give me a second.
Should be toward the end.
Scroll up a little bit.
Sorry, I did provide them. I can't find them.
Anyway, days and hours of operation.
Days of seven days a week, Monday through Saturday, 7.30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and then Sundays, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
And how many total employees would be employed here?
Total hired at these locations tend to be around 15 employees, but around five per shift.
And the parking is adequate or reasonable in the shopping center for this?
Okay, and I'm sure you've done studies, but is there a comparison you could say?
i'm sure you've done studies but is there a comparison you could say what are the the customer
what are the cost
trips or how many customers within a store compared to the right aid on a typical day
the average maximum amount of customers in the store at a given time is probably around four
to five okay tends to be in and out sales and if we look at this floor plan um is where is the trash
storage so the trash would be small trash containers for lunch disposal and miscellaneous
trash there's also a dumpster area in the back on the swanson half side that we would take all
of our trash out to um and yeah that's really good okay and is there any hazardous waste here
so there is uh oil storage container for customers to drop off their used motor oil
It will get dumped into the oil containers, and then once the container gets filled up to a certain capacity, they call a company called Safety Clean to come and collect them and then drop off an empty container in addition to a container for oil filters.
And that's all stored inside, right?
That is all stored inside to the rear of the space near the receiving doors.
Okay. And I also have for Ashton, if there's any questions, I would say that we did meet with the Whitman Council's community group on June 17, and we have a letter from them with proviso conditions, which I'll turn this around here, which we're fine with.
is there anything other thing for us erlyn okay uh questions from the board
yes so is there a charge for that expense of dropping off oil because i didn't know that
no it's complimentary oh wow okay well that's good people for people to know so typically with
businesses like this especially in the city you have folks that may i may buy a can of oil and
you know i'm just gonna pop my pop my hood right in the parking lot or my engine with the oil and
then go um so is there a system where your employees will monitor that parking lot uh
making sure that folks won't do those like minor tweaks of you know adding fluids to their that
you guys sell to their uh automobiles um is there like periodic watch of that so um wait before you
Before you, before you, before you answer that, can I break in here?
Council, our member is being very nice.
I got to tell you, every one of these places that I go to, you've got people that are running
businesses in these parking lots, repairing cars, repairing, replacing batteries, replacing
motors in some cases, doing body work.
And so the question is, what are you going to do with the existing properties that you
have and including this one to kind of deal with those kind of nuisance conditions in these parking
lots and it goes on and on and on I'm about to probably pull out a video of something you know
what's what's your answer to that we've learned I'll let Ashton speak we learned a lot about this
and I learned a new term called shade tree mechanics so it this did arise at the meeting
and that's why we talked about these proviso conditions um we'll do as as much as we can and
we talked about this with whitman council they are comfortable with the landlord because they
know the landlord the golden brew group would not want this happening in uh their in their parking
lot but ashton if you want to address what you had proposed to do so yeah so there is a couple
of conversations we have internally with these types of situations with the shade tree mechanics
One of those items is to let our staff or our store team members know and operations team members know to necessarily notify the authorities when it comes to those types of services or items being conducted on the site.
If there is any waste left behind, our store team are notified to just come clean it up and throw it in our dumpster.
Those are kind of the expenses or the risks we're willing to take.
But we have a strict policy not to necessarily engage the public when it comes to those acts, because we don't want to jeopardize their safety.
In addition to that, it's also beneficial for us to just have communication with the local police
or sheriff or whosoever and just figure out potential processes when it comes to having
maybe security or patrol, as well as possibly just talking to the landlord and seeing if there's a
possibility of engaging in tow trucks or tow companies to because we've heard stories where
because we've heard stories where people would leave and abandon cars for these shade tree
people would leave and abandon cars for these shade tree mechanics and
mechanics and the client, whoever their client is, has to come and see that the car has been
sitting there and unable to be serviced. So we have some ways to try to alleviate that stress
within the neighbors and whatnot, but it's kind of a process that we're trying to figure out what
works best in the area. So you can commit to at least like if any debris is left from those
mechanics that your your staff yeah yeah we've done that in multiple locations i've had stores
in long island where we've had that taken care of in brooklyn so when you so when you contact the
the local authorities what do they do because uh you know i'm not too far from one and i could go
out there right now and they're probably about 15 different mechanics working on cars right at this
moment so what what what did they do so you call the local what did they do yeah it was sometimes
we call we call multiple occasions and sometimes they just don't come out or you know every times
where the store manager would come out and just let it be known to the people who are doing these
repairs in the parking lot but at the most um we're kind of limited with what we can do it's not
like we can but we're in agreement with with you and the landlord that they would take action
the best they can i don't know what they can do on the street but yeah i guess these are the
parking lots yeah these are the parking lots these don't in the streets these are literally
on your parking lots yeah and i guess i have a follow-up question because this is not something
that we can provide though but how much control do you all have as a store operator to put up
signage in front of the spaces that are in front of your store that say things like no loitering
or sort of inform people, no stopping, no wait.
Like their target, for example, has to do it for their pickup, right?
So like how much control do you guys have in putting out signage in front of the store?
We have a lot of control.
We have a branding department that could put up appropriate signage that is needed.
And we can put them all along our storefront.
And then we can coordinate with the landlord as to posting probably post signs on the property
within our lease line, whatever he allows, but we can definitely have that conversation.
And then I just have a question about your typical customer. How often are you guys getting
like larger bulk orders? So the trucks would deliver to the store on occasion, possibly once
a week, and it comes after business hours. Not inventory. I'm saying like as a customer,
I'm going to walk in and I'm going to order, I don't know, 20 tires or like a bulk order
from a customer? How often does that happen? Not often. We don't do large bulk orders. So
our service is basically DIY customers. That's somebody coming out of their house and want to
get windshield wipers or anything. They'll come in and buy something off the sales floor.
And then we have a clientele, which we call pro services. And those are the local mechanics in
the community. They don't typically buy bulk. They buy on order. They will call in the order
to the store they'll receive that call and they'll have it ready and then they will we will have a
delivery vehicle that comes from our store that will deliver the product to the mechanic so they're
not having to come because i'm more worried like just about loading zone or like anybody that might
have a larger than normal order no mostly taking those to them yes we have a delivery service with
a small car that we just drop off the mechanic so they run an account with the store yes they
They lock in an account with what they call our CMM, and they get that service provided.
Other questions?
Questions from our attorney?
I have two questions.
You indicated in your paperwork about, it looked like signage.
Signage is not part of this.
That's correct.
I just want to make sure.
It would be a separate application.
Okay, great.
I also wanted to kind of clarify the address of this, because when I was reviewing things,
there's a couple different addresses and not that we asked for it but we didn't have a lease for it
which maybe would have clarified you know what i mean from the tenant so we have the address you
know that was on the application is 30-48 schneider avenue but i thought i read pen schneider avenue
on your sign plans so we need to make sure yeah that's no that or do you have a unit you know
what i mean because it was the the the opa address is 30-48 i think it once might have been an aka
10 snyder or that was colloquially known as that but the official address is 30-48 okay so that
would be okay thank you i would just add before planning speaks yeah if i may just to close it
you know we believe a hardship exists for the space it's been too large to rent and we have a