The latest catch of the day for real estate developers in Queens could be the site of London Lennie’s Restaurant in Rego Park.
An advertisement on the real estate website Zillow that surfaced on May 23 listed the beloved eatery at 63-88 Woodhaven Blvd. as being “for sale or lease” with a $6.5 million price tag. Salvatore Crifasi of Crifasi Real Estate is handling the transaction.
Even with the site being on the market, London Lennie’s remains open for business, serving luxurious seafood lunches and dinners to hundreds of guests each week.
The Zillow description notes that the one-story property is “a rare development site.” The restaurant itself occupies 6,000 sq. ft. of the 10,700 sq. ft. lot, but the existing residential zoning and commercial overlay could allow a developer to erect a more than 22,000 sq. ft. building — nearly four times the size of the existing eatery.
“This redevelopment opportunity provides developers the ability to capitalize on tremendous demand in an area with a scarcity of developable [sic] land,” according to listing, which indicated that it could be perfect for a “mixed-use project with the potential to include … medical, retail, residential, community facility, hotel and/or office.”
The restaurant’s owner also owns the property through a holding company listed on city records as RP Seafood LLC. Crifasi told QNS the owner is keeping his options open about whether to sell the restaurant and its property, or lease the building to a tenant for uses other than a restaurant.
The Barnes family opened London Lennie’s in 1959, and over the last 60 years, the eatery has become one of Queens’ prime seafood spots. On its website, the restaurant boasts of “serving only the best hand-selected, local fish and seafood … artfully prepared and presented to you with pride and consistency.”
The restaurant is one of the more popular dinner spots in the Rego Park and Middle Village areas. It’s not uncommon to see a packed house walking into London Lennie’s on a given night or weekend. London Lennie’s also has a 3 1/2-star rating on Yelp.
QNS reached out to London Lennie’s restaurant for further comment and is awaiting a response. We’ll update our story once it’s received.
