Want a café? Buy it


To the Editor:


As owner of the building housing the Osprey Café, I would like to respond to the Osofsky/Kessler letter submitted to the Town Board and others.


Their letter contains numerous items of misinformation. Osofsky/Kesslers are surprised that I have approached the Town Board, in the winter, to bring the property into compliance with the town code. 


Over the summer, I crossed paths with family members at least six times. On one occasion, I spent a very pleasant two hours with Steve Kessler. We spoke about many things. When the conversation turned to the café, I told him how and why I was unsuccessful in operating the business. 


I shared with him how I invested money to improve the property, hired an engineer to gain increased seating capacity approval from Suffolk County Board of Health, had architectural plans drawn, and attempted to expand, by means of a contingency purchase contract I had to purchase the church’s parking lot. 


I told Steve that after all these efforts had failed, I had given up trying to operate the café and was advertising it for long-term lease or sale. I informed Steve that I would wait to see if I could find an acceptable deal for the summer of 2010. If not, I would move to take this non-conforming property and bring it up to code as a business office. 


Steve is a commercial real estate professional in NYC. (Randy, his wife, is also a NYC real estate professional.) He indicated that he understood and sympathized with my plight. That afternoon ended on an upbeat note. He said, “I can assure you that my family will not interfere this time around.” 


The café has actively been on the market since last June. Now that they have chosen to get involved, I have directly offered to sell it to the Osofsky/Kessler family and to provide them with financing, if needed. The family seems to have no interest in the property — either I should run it or anyone else should. Since they are in favor of continuing this business, the Osofsky/Kessler family should take on this project themselves. 


MARC WEIN


SHELTER ISLAND