Aliyya Swaby Photo
Afifi pitches neighbors on plan.
After working 38 years at a spinal implant company he started, Hosam Afifi is on to a new venture — opening a private hookah club and food court on Church Street.
Afifi (pictured at top center) and business partner Charbel Eid (pictured at left in top photo) — of Hala Inc. — didn’t get much resistance pitching the idea to neighbors at the Downtown Wooster Square Community Management team meeting Tuesday night.
They signed a lease two days earlier to the building at 27 – 33 Church, the former home of Congress Pants across from the new Gateway Community College campus.
Afifi and Eid plan to open the business in May, after approaching the Board of Zoning Appeals about a special exception in February.
Lawyer James Perito (pictured at right top photo) and Afifi explained the proposed layout of the two-story building to the management team.
A large part of the basement is a crawl space, which does not have much use, and the rest of the space will be used for employee bathrooms, Perito said.
Sal Comunale, whose management company owns the building, renovated the facade of the store to match the historic detail of Gateway Community College across the street.
“We held it vacant for the right tenant,” he said. A lot of potential tenants for the space were not “community-friendly.”
The first floor will be a “food hall,” Afifi said, allowing people to access different types of cuisine in the same space. The trend has spread across New York City over the last couple of years, he said. “You go with a group of friends or family members and there are several counters serving different kinds of food,” he said. “Everyone will have what they want from the counter.”
“We’ve all been to malls,” said Cordalie Benoit, a member of the management team.
The hall will include a “fast casual” Lebanese restaurant, a pizza and pasta joint, a salad bar, a shawarma station and a breakfast place, Afifi said.
The second floor will encompass the hookah lounge, which will be a private club in order to be able to serve food. Only those age 18 and older will be able to purchase membership to the club. Eid said his group plans to hire between 40 and 50 employees to work seven days a week, with shifts starting with breakfast at around 6:30 a.m. and ending when the hookah club closes at around 2 a.m.
No liquor will be served on the first or second floors. Afifi and Eid are requesting a special exception from the Board of Zoning Appeals for the private club.
There is no parking requirement for the building since it is located in a BD‑1 zone.
Is there a chance that smoke will drift down from the second to first floors? asked Elsie Chapman, a Wooster Square neighbor.
No, Afifi said. An energy recovery filtration system will clean the air before it circulates in and out of the building.
The club does not yet have a name. Afifi said possibilities include “One Roof” or “Food Haven” — a name that indicates the variety of food offered.
ONE MORE late night trouble spot our understaffed police department will have to patrol as if they don't have enough trouble around the corner from there!