The Golden Gate Motor Inn in Sheepshead Bay has gone where all financial sinkholes on valuable Brooklyn property go: death row. And the motel’s new owner may have plans to demolish the building in favor of a more lucrative business, but not without community input first.

Harshad “Nick” Patel of the development company Krishna Management LLC and the owner of the Golden Gate, asked Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz to call an informal meeting for Feb. 5, ostensibly to take suggestions from the community. Local groups invited to the meeting included Community Board 15, the Sheepshead Bay/Plum Beach Civic Association and the Bay Improvement Group. Patel, however, did not attend.

The newly renovated Golden Gate Motor Inn on Knapp St. in Sheepshead Bay.

The meeting was not the type of shootout typically ignited by development issues as no formal development plan has been submitted. In fact, most residents came away from the meeting optimistic and ready to start the process.

“We’re looking forward to working with the developer,” said Gene Berardelli, legal counsel for the Sheepshead Bay/ Plum Beach Civic Association. Community Board 15 chairwoman Theresa Scavo felt similarly satisfied with the meeting’s outcome. But how much of the community’s suggestions he’ll take into account remains to be seen.

Patel has refused to comment after multiple inquiries but the motel speaks for itself.

Built in 1962 but recently renovated, the Golden Gate Motor Inn has 144 guest rooms, a meeting hall for 250 people, an outdoor swimming pool, an Italian restaurant and other typical hotel amenities.

“It’s a dump,” Scavo said, who was anxious to see it go. So what is it exactly that the community would like the Golden Gate Inn’s reincarnation to look like?

“The consensus was that nobody wants to see anything residential at that site,” said Berardelli. The idea of a supermarket was also proposed but quickly repudiated. Both were met with an informal promise of community-wide protest. “Out of the question,” snapped Scavo.

By popular demand, the three community groups in attendance told the Borough President that they would like to see, well, a hotel. The ideal hotel in their eyes would be mid-sized (read 150 or so units) with a swimming pool, a reception hall, some restaurants and the usual hotel amenities. Including a spa and a gym would make it even more attractive, the assembly posited. Essentially, these residents want a fancier, more up-scale franchise to suit the community’s catering, assembly and fitness needs.

But the impetus for the Golden Gate brain storming session was that the motel isn’t doing well, according to local officials. “He loses money with every passing day,” Scavo said. So what’s to say that slapping a brand name and a gym onto a hotel in the same spot will make it successful?

It appears that Patel has already taken this into consideration after running the Golden Gate for about a year. According to the Department of City Planning, the lot, while currently zoned for low-density row houses and garden apartments, has been pre-certified for a zoning change to suit a large-scale residential development. The developer’s original proposal was for a 350-unit, four building housing complex though residents at the meeting immediately shot down the idea. Though an official request has not been submitted yet, Patel has not abandoned the option.

But the community’s leaders are not naïve. “We’re going to be what we’ve always been,” said the Berardelli of the neighborhood civic association, “vigilant and proactive.” Since the zoning would have to be changed either way, community board members have even toyed with the notion of a proactive rezoning. The change would strictly prohibit a residential complex and would allow for a hotel as big as the community’s collective imagination.

But there are some bureaucratic stumbling blocks along the way for the Community Board. Their zoning vote and the Borough President’s recommendation are both only advisory in nature. The decisions that stick are the City Planning Commission’s approval and the City Council’s vote.

It doesn’t look good for residents if Patel decides he wants a condo. Historically, the pro-development city government only yields on a project if there is blatant illegal activity. For example, at 1610 Ave. S in Sheepshead Bay, a stop-work order was put on a 6-story condo only after dozens of neighborhood complaints, numerous safety violations and evidence that the developer illegally tried to have his property grandfathered in after a zoning change. Even in this extreme case where 18 inspections took place before action was taken by the city, the project may still go through.

So two outcomes for Patel’s most recent real estate venture are possible: A noisy and protracted battle between community and developer will end with a garish yet profitable 350-unit residential nightmare. Or, a marginally nicer hotel will stand tall where the moribund Golden Gate now lies and the developer will have much more than he bargained for – a financial sinkhole… with a gym.

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