ZBA Hearing - August 19, 2026

I'll start with Exhibit 1, which is the Notice of Referral.

This application asks for a special exception to approve an event assembly facility

that occupies a portion of this fairly large building.

The other uses which occupy the other half, approximately, of the building

are warehouse commissaries and catering services uses translation essentially the other half of

the building is a commercial kitchen and the board already saw this application in 2020 so

what you'll notice here is that only the event assembly facility is not a buy right use that's

That's why the other uses are only mentioned up here, but they're not listed as referrals.

The buy right uses were originally permitted in 2019, and the event facility was permitted

by this board in 2020.

But what happened thereafter is that my client pulled a building permit, proceeded to renovate

the building under that building permit, completed the work, and then, I think because of some chaos

caused by COVID-19, the L&I inspector did not close that building permit. We then understand

the L&I inspector left the city's employment, so that building permit was left hanging open,

even though the work was done, and these businesses have now been up and running for five years,

But recently, Elle and I noticed that our building permit was never closed and it issued

a violation and it expired our zoning.

So we had to kind of start from scratch.

So that's why we're here.

It's to get use approvals for these uses again.

And I will present the whole case to you.

I'm not just going to hang my hat on the fact that the board saw it in 2020, since many

The board saw it in 2020, since many of you were not here in 2020, but I just wanted to give you that context.

of you were not here in 2020.

20.

And feel free to ask me any questions about that now or later.

Exhibit 2 is a memo of law which identifies why we believe our application satisfies the code's requirements for a special exception.

In the highlighted text here, I basically run through exactly what I just told you.

So I won't repeat it, but this is also available in writing if you need to review that history.

Exhibit 3, just skip ahead a little bit.

Here we go.

Exhibit 3 is permits to provide evidence of what I just talked about.

so here in 2020 is the zoning permit that uh authorized our uses you'll see here assembly

and entertainment and commissaries and catering services um this was obtained by my colleague

meredith furliger uh back then um since 2020 assembly and entertainment has been broken down

into new subtypes so we are now uh an event assembly facility rather than assembly and

entertainment but same use uh as was sort of planned for back then is exactly what we're doing

now it's basically a banquet hall it's where people have weddings and events of that nature

no public ticketed events um the creation of the event assembly facility category was partially to

distinguish facilities like ours that are not open to the public and do not have you know ticketed

events. And then just continuing here, here's the notice of referral from back then to just to show

you that this went through the ZBA. Here is the notice of decision showing that the ZBA said yes.

Here is a record of our building permit. I have the floor plans under which our work was performed,

so you'll kind of see what this building permit was issued on. But in any event,

um l and i recently expired this permit as is highlighted here so we're going to reobtain a

building permit l and i is going to look at our floor plans again and compare it to the work that

was completed so everything will be um you know according to code and per inspection

here's the zoning map at exhibit four just to show you that uh the entire frankfurt arsenal

business park is considered one parcel by the various city agencies and it's zoned irmx

It is sort of walled off from surrounding residential neighborhoods by Tacony Street and I-95, so there's really no impact on residents from what we're doing.

And then the business park is sort of chopped up into land condominium units.

So my client, Building 39 LLC, which is really a business venture of the Wiser family, owns Building 39, which is one of the two buildings highlighted in yellow here.

It also owns Building 38, which I think is the other building highlighted in yellow, but only Building 39 is before you today.

And you'll also see here that there's a parking lot that the clients and customers of Building 39 have use of.

it's very easy to get to you pull into the arsenal right here off of taconi street this is the main

gate and our parking lot really is the first thing you stumble across so it's very easy to get to

just some aerials of the subject building here where the yellow arrows are

and then I have some photos of our zoning posters not for the posters themselves but just to give

you a street level perspective of the building so here it is as seen from Tacony Street

the next couple of photos are from Bridge Street which is really nowhere near the building but we

required to put posters up there too. This is the floor plan. I do have the architect I believe on

the line if you have any questions but as I mentioned this was already reviewed and approved

by L&I for a building permit back in 2020. We're going to submit it again and essentially the

building is sort of divided in two as I mentioned. So there's the open event space here on the left

to the southwestern side and on the right to the northeast you have the back of house space which

consists of a commercial kitchen various storage spaces and bathrooms

exhibit eight oh pardon me that's my cell phone i'm so sorry let me mute that

i have to tell my wife i'll talk to her after so exhibit eight here has a couple photos of the

Exhibit 8 here has a couple photos of the space in use.

space in use so you have

So you have sort of this garage door thing going on on the left side, which again is the event area.

So during nice weather, you can have weddings and other events that sort of flow in and out.

The right side there is the back of house space that I mentioned.

And this is the interior of the event space getting ready for an event.

and the back of house space would be behind that wall.

The Wisers maintain different websites for the event space and for the kitchen.

And I will explain why the kitchen has its own website in a moment,

but I'll start with the event space.

Just we'll flip through this really quickly at Exhibit 9.

Just to show you this is a proper business.

It's been up and running for years now.

It provides rentals of the different equipment that you might need to throw a wedding here or another event.

Just some other photos of the space in use.

It talks about the different amenities that you can rent.

Exhibit 10 is our various letters of support.

The first one, just because the chairman didn't mention this one, is unique to our application because this is a condominium association.

So this is from the association itself, evidencing that there's no internal objection to our continuation of these uses that have now been up and running for years.

I think this is signed by the president of the association, Mr. Hankin.

we have letters of support from the only affected RCO other than the coordinating RCO which is

Wissenoming Civic we have a letter of support from Councilman Driscoll we have a letter of support

from BCAA who is the coordinating RCO their meeting summary will tell you that only one

member of the public came out to the meeting we did mail a lot of surrounding properties the

required mailing it just as i showed you is not a residential area so it was not exactly a surprise

to us that this didn't generate a ton of public interest we we do have this letter also from a

woman who happens to own two other buildings in the arsenal and very flattering i'll just

read you this one paragraph she's very supportive of what's been going on on our property she says

quote, I am as hardcore a historic preservationist as you're going to find, and I have been awed by what has been done with that building to preserve both its fabric and its spirit and service of entirely new functions, end quote.

Very nice to sort of get something like this out of the blue.

Exhibit 11 is an article by WHYY that I included just to sort of talk about the kitchen portion of the building.

Even though that's not before you today, all I wanted to mention about it is this is a kitchen that provides a function.

When there are no events in the event space, this is used as a co-working space.

It's sort of like a WeWork for chefs.

So if you owned a food truck or if you provided catering to other venues outside of the arsenal, you can be a member of this co-working kitchen to provide you a space to store your goods, to cook, and to collaborate with other chefs.

It's a really unique, sort of fabulous place to give people who are in this industry, which can be grinding and isolating, sort of a sense of belonging.

I think that this picture is of the Building 38 Kitchen, which is also a part of this business.

So just want to be clear on that for the record.

But in the text here, people are talking about belonging to Culinary Collective, which is the name of the business, and using both the kitchens in Building 39, this building, and Building 38.

And you just have some pictures of some of the members here.

I think that that is it.

When I get on.

Brandon, is this a 20-year-old business?

It's not 20 years old.

I believe about five, Mr. Chairman.

and that is the conclusion by the way all right all right why don't you bring your client sure

sure um craig weiser could you raise your virtual hand

craig weiser will be rejoining as a panelist thank you

Thank you.

i am hi boys could you hi how are you could you please state your name and spell for this

doctor my name is craig weiser c-r-a-i-g-w-e-i-z-e-r you swear or affirm to tell the truth

told truth nothing but the truth i do also thank you uh craig uh are you authorized to speak on

behalf of building 39 llc i am okay did you hear my testimony in your case this afternoon i did

was it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge was true and extremely accurate okay

and would you therefore adopt my testimony on behalf of the llc as if it had been your own

I do. Okay. Thank you. Questions from the board.

Questions from our attorney. Yes. Hi, Lynn Riedel, Huber board counsel. I just wanted to clarify

on your deed. I believe the property that you're asking for the variance on is unit 39,

but you've referred to it as building 39. Yes, that would be the same thing. It is,

it is officially known as unit 39 by the city building 39 is sort of the doing business as name

okay i just want to make sure thank you yeah questions or comments from the virtual audience

i do not see any hands mr chair planning addison matera planning commission staff the

comprehensive plan recommends no change from the existing irmx industrial residential mixed

use zoning at this location this property was rezoned in 2015 according to recommendations

in the north delaware district plan the opponent has demonstrated that the proposed use will not

cause detrimental impacts beyond what would be reasonably expected the planning commission

recommends the board grant the requested special exception for event assembly facility

am i 20 26 002 123 123 2275 bridge street i vote yes with proviso use limited to unit 39

michael johns my vote is yes with proviso

cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso tenetta graham my vote is yes with proviso

Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes, supervisor.

Thank you, counsel.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Lord.

Number 11, MI 2026-002-137-2814 Master Street.

Al Nachamson is the attorney.

So, Nachamson, I believe you were sworn this morning at one point.

Am I right?

Right. And could you just state your name and spell it for the stenographer?

Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.

Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?

Yeah, I actually have two clients here. I have Stelios Tisonontides, that's a tongue twister, who is representing Majesty Beauty.

And I also have Sandra Clark, who's representing the bakery. Sofa Lena. All right. I see there. You have letter of support from brewery town. That's correct. And non opposition from council member young. Yes. That's our vice chair has just a few questions. Thank you. Yep. Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing? Yes, we have. And do you waive the reading of the refusals and stipulate to the accurate? I do. All right. Thank you.

You can see your screen and proceed.

So the board saw this project in 2019.

They approved for this RSA five property corner property at at the corners of master new Kirk,

a commercial commercial on the ground floor and two residential units above as part of

their approval um it just said vacant commercial space i think this has changed a little bit now

you can have vacant commercial space and designate it as you know for instance cmx2 and if we would

have done that we wouldn't be here today so we're just doing some cleanup here um we have 14 exhibits

here at the conclusion my presentation i would ask that stellios and or sandra adopt my testimony

at their own uh rsa5 property um so my client's bakery is more of a catering bakery there's no

like it's not a retail component she started doing it from her home she's she's doing well um there

she started doing it from her home she's she's doing well um there while there's cooking the

premises there's no venting she has a ventless stove there um and you know as far as the hair

salon again small operation neighborhood operation and um the community has much approval for it

letter of support you can see it's a letter of support from the brewery town chargewood

Community Civic Association referencing the small custom bakery and the hair

salon operations which will be side-by-side hopefully property history

I just want to give you the use permit which included the approvals from this

zoning board and stated vacant space on first floor use registration permit

required prior to occupancy and that's why we're here today much support in the

community for this for these businesses to open up a little bit about sofa lena again sandra

has started out in her own kitchen her operations got bigger nerve bigger but it's still just her

and her hours of operations from nine to four monday through friday and then saturdays nine

to one she's the only employee there her menu includes cookies cakes cake pops cookie bouquets

cupcakes. She's SafeServe certified. The space has already been preliminarily approved by the

health department. We have those approvals. And the oven is electric. It does not require

ventilation. It doesn't produce smoke, grease, vapors, or steam. It's an MVP group access

AX-513. It's 22 inches wide. This is some of her product that she has.

again some approvals preliminary approvals uh from from the city

maps of the area it's pretty straightforward in that um we are rsa5 but you know again this

has been approved it's baking commercial space from the board photographs this is what the

outside looks like it's very nice i mean my clients didn't do this but the owner did do that

um this um is the entry point for the commercial uh i guess catering space uh you know she doesn't

expect to have any um residents any customers come in like to just buy cookies for instance

by the way this is the space for the hair salon and then but this is what the building looked like

before the renovation so the owner did a great job and you know um definitely retrofitted the

space for those two commercial spaces and hoping for these commercial businesses to

open up in Brewery Town.

These are the hearing notice postings.

This is New Kirk to the right of the property, to the left of the property, Master Street

to the right of the property, to the left of the property.

Interior photos.

While the apartments are not included as part of the presentation, I just wanted to show

you how much you know how nice this building is how much the owner did to the building

we should applaud that from a variant standpoint that someone actually effectuated what they

promised to do this is so for lena's space it's really small uh her space is i think 300 square

feet and the salon is only 350 square feet but this is the oven you can see here

and different interior photos we did some simple simple floor plans so you can see it

from that another oven in the back there i think that's a refrigerator but okay yeah