As the opening of the Barclays Center looms, real estate brokers and the local community are sparring over what types of bars and restaurants can move into the area, the Wall Street Journal reported. For instance, a bar called Kemistry, that hoped to open on Flatbush Avenue, ran into opposition from local Community Board 6 when it filed a request for a liquor license that would allow it to remain open until 3:30 a.m., the Journal said. “We couldn’t agree on terms when there were lingering concerns in the community that had not been addressed,” Craig Hammerman, district manager for the Community Board, told the Journal. James Brown, the restaurateur who hopes to operate Kemistry, said he will pursue the license despite opposition from locals. “There’s an assumption that we want to be a big party club,” he told the Journal. He said the Community Board has legitimate concerns, but that he didn’t necessarily “want that environment either.” [WSJ]
Neighbors oppose Barclays-area bars and clubs
